Times of Eswatini

Forced confession­s cited

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PRETORIA - The advocate defending four of the accused in the Senzo Meyiwa murder trial said he would bring a formal applicatio­n for a trial within a trial after arguing in the Pretoria High Court yesterday that his clients’ rights have been violated. “I am challengin­g the State to say we cannot proceed before we have a trial within a trial and ascertain that my clients were not wrongfully charged,” said advocate Malesela Teffo.

He said the continuati­on of the cross-examinatio­n of forensic officer Sgt Thabo Mosia would be a futile exercise.

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He claimed confession statements obtained from two of his clients were made under duress, and when his clients appeared at a Boksburg Court in 2020, they were not adequately informed of the accusation­s against them. “Their constituti­onal rights have been violated. When they appeared in Boksburg, , they were not charged or given the reason they had to be in court. That is where, for the first time, South Africans saw the accused refusing to enter the accused box,” Teffo said.

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