Murder accused gets bail
Missing woman’s ex-lover charged
ADURBAN businessman charged with the murder of his ex-lover after she went missing in 2007 appeared in court for his bail hearing this week, “severely ill”.
Surrounded by paramedics and on a stretcher for the hearing, Sateesh Isseri was released on R50 000 bail. He has been charged with the murder of Faeika Esop Ali and appeared before Durban Regional Magistrate Zinhle Mnguni.
“We wish him well so that he can be fit for trial,” said Ali’s daughter, Fehmida.She added her family was pleased he had been arrested and steps had been taken to solve the mystery of her mother’s death.
Of the bail, she said: “It’s a drop in the ocean for him.”
Ali would have been 49 this year. She disappeared in mysterious circumstances after leaving her home with Isseri. Her body was never found. Ali was with Isseri the day she vanished. They had been going to a clinic he owned.
It is alleged Isseri and Ali got into in an altercation shortly before that. But Isseri said they were driving in Newlands when three men tried to assault them.
He had previously claimed they took Ali away and she was “alive and well” in Cape Town.
When bringing a high court application to have her declared dead, the woman’s children alleged he killed her. The matter is still pending.
This week, Isseri’s lawyer Anand Nepaul, presented documents in court to show Isseri’s health had been deteriorating for months and he had been admitted to hospital before his arrest. The papers confirmed Isseri was a patient at eThekwini Heart Hospital and had recently suffered a stroke; a stent had been put in his heart, and he needed a hernia operation.
Opposing bail, the State said Isseri had been in a corrupt relationship with Brigadier Simon Madonsela, the investigating officer in the case at one stage; he’d booked into hospital after his arrest and his medical history had not been confirmed.
Isseri in turn denied having been in a corrupt relationship and claimed he had co-operated with investigations since 2007. He said he would have been arrested years ago if the State had a strong case.
The case was postponed to January.