'My dad is not coming back'

2008-12-02 16:06

Verashni Pillay

Cape Town - "The fact remains that my dad is not going to come back - and that hurts the most," Taliep Petersen's daughter Fatima said with tears in her eyes, after Najwa Petersen was found guilty of murdering the music and theatre legend.

"Allahu akbar!" rang out from the public gallery, as Judge Siraj Desai read out the verdict, bringing to a close nearly two years of investigations and trial procedures in the sensational murder case.

Taliep Petersen was shot execution-style in his Athlone home in December 2006. His widow, who has a long history of mental illness, was found guilty of masterminding his murder, which she hired hitmen to do and tried to pass off as a robbery.

Friends and family from the close-knit community have been following the case closely.

"I don't know if I can go on with my life yet," Taliep's eldest daughter, Jawaahier, told News24.

"For the past two years to say I grieved my father would be a lie. Since the day my father died it's just been media exposure and theories. But now I can finally lay him to rest in my heart and my head."

The final-year University of Cape Town student and television personality got married on Sunday, the day before the verdict began for her stepmother and three co-accused.

Hitmen Abdoer Emjedi and Waheed Hassen were also found guilty of murder.

'Festered with lies'

The third man in the dock, Jefferson Snyders, was convicted only on a charge of robbery with aggravating circumstances.

Desai read out from his judgment all of Monday, summarising the various testimonies. On Tuesday morning he began to express his doubts about Najwa's case as presented by her lawyer, senior counsel Johan Engelbrecht.

There was a gasp from the court when he turned to evaluating Najwa's testimony and said it "festered with lies".

He called one theory by her defence that police were in a plot against Najwa "nonsense" and that it displayed some desperation on the part of Engelbrecht.

"The suggestion that the police would pay someone to wrong an innocent widow and access R200 000 is an argument devoid of any merit whatsoever," he said.

But Engelbrecht, who was Najwa's fourth counsel after a series of changes on her part, said he accepted the court's decision.

"We'll study the judgment but we'll accept the judgment at this stage," he said.

'Fight for Zaynab'

Desai postponed the matter to February 4 next year for sentencing procedures, after a request from Engelbrecht for that date. He intends to call a forensic criminologist to present as complete a picture as possible of his client.

The criminologist will be Irma Labuschagne, who recently testified in the sentencing of Skierlik shooter Johann Nel.

"The court must know who the court is sentencing," he told News24.

Meanwhile Najwa's sons, Suleiman Effendi and Achmat Gamieldien, sobbed hopelessly at the back of the court after hearing the verdict.

Effendi, 20, stood disconsolately outside the gates where his mother would be driven out in a police van, crying to himself. He was swamped by photographers and video cameras.

Earlier his mother had leaned over the dock and shouted to her sons: "Fight for Zaynab," referring to their half-sister, her only child from her marriage with Taliep Petersen.

Engelbrecht said the family advocate would appear in court to determine what would happen to the nine-year-old, while Taliep's brother, Igsaan Petersen, assured reporters that she would be in good care.

- News24