‘Butchery 3’ to magistrate’s decision

Three armed robbery suspects, who were denied bail in August after being arrested in connection with a foiled robbery at an East London butchery, are hoping the Grahamstown High Court will overturn a decision to deny them bail.

Warren Isaacs, Alpercino “Cino” Shearer and Shirley Gunuza, represented by advocate Mike Maseti, will on December 11 ask the judge to overturn magistrate Joel Cesar’s decision to deny his clients bail.

“The learned magistrate erred in finding that the appellants failed to adduce sufficient evidence to satisfy the court that the interests of justice permitted their release on bail.

“We believe that they have a fighting chance at getting bail in another court,” Maseti said.

Bail was denied to the group, dubbed the “Butchery 3”, because of allegations of intimidation tactics and threats to “deal” with state witnesses.

The matter went before magistrate Rochelle Sam on Wednesday, but was postponed to January 14 for further investigation.