Rohde in court with top team
THE private pathologist hand-picked by Oscar Pistorius’s defence team to bolster his case has been contracted by Jason Rohde, the chief executive accused of his wife’s murder.
The 47-year-old multimillionaire appeared in the Stellenbosch Magistrate’s Court yesterday with a team including five lawyers, private investigators and Durban-based pathologist Dr Reggie Perumal, who conducted a second postmortem on the body of Susan Rohde.
Advocate Pete Mihalik read out an extensive affidavit by his client – the chief executive of Geffen International Realty Franchises – detailing the events after Susan’s body was found at Spier Wine Estate in Stellenbosch on July 24.
Initially it was reported that Susan had committed suicide but after the state’s postmortem a murder docket was opened.
Rohde’s affidavit said he cooperated with police in the days before his arrest on Tuesday.
But at the same time he had his own sleuths – including former top cop JD Kotze, who led the infamous Station Strangler case – conducting a parallel probe.
He also rubbished the state’s postmortem results, claiming Perumal’s provisional report concluded that Susan took her own life.
Mihalik argued that Rohde’s arrest – at his Johannesburg home – was unlawful and he should be released on bail. The case continues today.