Rohde rearrested and ordered to attend court

JASON Rohde‚ who is on trial in the Cape Town High Court for the murder of his wife, Susan‚ was rearrested yesterday.

“Our client has been arrested and is being held at the Stellenbosch police station,” Rohde’s lawyer‚ Daniel Witz‚ said.

Earlier‚ Judge Gayaat Salie-Hlophe issued a warrant of arrest for the former property executive to attend an inquiry today into his breach of bail conditions.

Rohde failed to appear in court on Monday‚ when his trial was supposed to resume for the first time since November.

His four advocates‚ led by Pete Mihalik‚ asked for a seven-day postponement to allow the businessman to recuperate from an undisclosed illness.

But Salie-Hlophe said the information presented to her was insufficient.

Three medical reports presented to her did not include a medical certificate explaining why Rohde was not fit to attend his trial‚ she said.

Salie-Hlophe adjourned proceedings for about two hours on Monday and asked that the investigating officer‚ Sergeant Steven Adams‚ “facilitate” Rohde’s appearance.

But his psychiatrist‚ at an unnamed Cape Town hospital‚ refused to release him without a court order.

The court ordered that an inquiry into Rohde’s breach of his bail conditions be held yesterday and that the psychiatrist‚ Kevin Stoloff‚ testify about his condition.

But Mihalik objected yesterday to the inquiry being held in Rohde’s absence.

Prosecutor Louis van Niekerk argued that Rohde was legally represented and the proceedings were recorded.

Salie-Hlophe issued a warrant compelling Rohde to attend the inquiry today.

Rohde is charged with murdering his wife‚ Susan‚ and obstructing the administration of justice by making her death look like a suicide. They have three daughters.

The former Lew Geffen/Sotheby’s International Realty chief executive was sharing a room with his wife at the Spier wine estate‚ near Stellenbosch‚ in July 2016 when she was found dead with the cord of a hair iron around her neck behind the locked door.