GUILTY South Africa - Jayde Panayiotou, 28, Port Elizabeth, 21 April 2015

[JudgeJudi]

The translation of a document setting out the State's case against Siyoni has caused delays in his bail application. When proceedings resumed at 14:00, only 5 of the 36 pages had been translated.

The matter was adjourned again to allow the interpreter to continue translating, but by 15:30 they had only managed to get to page 16.

The matter has been adjourned until July.

 

[Tortoise]

OISA

 

[JudgeJudi]

Marius Stander said Siyoni had not provided any substantial or compelling evidence that there were exceptional circumstances that warranted him being released on bail. He said it was also not in the interests of justice, as Siyoni was a flight risk.

Luthando Siyoni, the self-confessed middleman in the murder of Jayde Panayiotou, had "thrown mud in court", but was not prepared to "place his own cards on the table".

This was the closing argument of State advocate Marius Stander, who pointed out that Siyoni had attacked the State's case, without putting forward any defence of his own. "He is attacking the strength of the State's case, but where is his defence? He doesn't have one!"

Stander told the court, “He does not have the guts to say his confession is false. He doesn't have the guts to say the money is his".

Following the closing arguments, the Magistrate postponed the matter to June 22 for judgment.

Middleman in Panayiotou murder 'a liar and a flight risk', court hears

 

[JudgeJudi]

Panayiotou’s application for leave to appeal his murder conviction was heard on 16 May.

The High Court heard that what was said in the undercover police sting operation which implicated CP cannot be used against him. Terry Price argued before Judge Chetty that CP was convicted on the basis of what happened in the police under-cover sting operation where Siyoni implicated CP in his wife’s murder. He argued that what self-confessed middleman Siyoni said to CP in the car was inadmissible.

Price said, “Your lordship found that Mr Siyoni was not an accused person and was a witness”. "But Mr Siyoni was an accused, an accomplice, and that evidence could not be used against another accused [Panayiotou]”.

Referring to case law, he argued that a Section 204 witness is an accused therefore the video evidence was not permissible against CP. “With respect, your lordship must grant leave to appeal on that basis alone,” Price said.

Price said that Chetty did not once mention in his judgment that search warrants were not obtained when police searched Siyoni’s house and his girlfriend Babalwa Breakfast's house. He argued that if a search was conducted without a warrant, that evidence became inadmissible. He said that Siyoni told three police officers that he was assaulted during detention, but his claims were not once followed up.

He said that Chetty found Warrant Officer Eksteen an outstanding witness but didn’t mention in his judgment how Eksteen was heard on tape calling Siyoni a “k****r”.

Price said that investigating Officer Captain Swanepoel used undue influence and told Siyoni to implicate CP.

Price said, “All the fingers point to assault from the word get go” . “I respectfully submit that there is enough here for your lordship to say that another court may come to a different conclusion. I’m going to ask your lordship to grant us leave to the Supreme Court of Appeal.”

Advocate Stander opposed the application and said Price was incorrect in applying the test. “Another court might come to a different conclusion -- that is not the test. The test is if there is a realistic chance that the application may succeed”.

Attorney Daubermann sought leave to appeal Nenembe’s conviction and Sibeko’s conviction and sentence.

Christopher Panayiotou seeks leave to appeal murder conviction | IOL News

 

[JudgeJudi]

CP’s application for leave to appeal his conviction has been dismissed.

Judge Chetty said the test for leave to appeal was whether there was a reasonable prospect of success. He said while the procedural grounds to appeal were clearly set out, CP's application was "not a model of clarity and offends against the spirit and purport of section 316 of the Criminal Procedures Act."

Chetty said the application was an amalgam of "inane ad vituperative [bitter and abusive] comment, and is moreover interspersed with belligerent innuendo."

He said ordinarily the application would have been struck off the roll, but this would have merely delayed the inevitable.

Chetty said Advocate Terry Price had advanced arguments that circumvented the facts that had underpinned the conviction and established beyond reasonable doubt that CP had orchestrated Jayde's murder.

Chetty said the judgement, on the other hand, had documented the full extent of the plan CP and Siyoni had devised. "The attack against the judgement had to avoid crucial findings and focus instead on a plethora of disingenuous suppositions, the real victim, Jayde, being supplanted by other would be victims in the personage of the first applicant, Siyoni and [Babalwa] Breakfast." "As I emphasized in my judgement, the only victim is Jayde".

Chetty said Price's arguments were, in his opinion, entirely without merit and dismissed the application. He also dismissed the applications brought by Nenembe and Sibeko, saying their application had been a regurgitation of the submissions advanced during the trial and which had been fully addressed in his judgement.

Following the court proceedings, Price indicated that they would be petitioning the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein.

Panayiotou's leave to appeal application dismissed

 

[Tortoise]

JJ I think that is a repeat of what we already heard in May when Chetty dismissed the application.

 

[JudgeJudi]

Duh, you're right. You posted re the application and I replied with the decision.

 

[Tortoise]

You raised my hopes at first that this was the appeal to the SCA that had been thrown out.

 

[Tortoise]

Luthando Siyoni was due back in court on Friday but the matter was postponed to next week because the presiding magistrate was unavailable.

Judgment in Siyoni's bail application is expected to be handed down on Monday.

Bail judgment postponed for self-confessed middleman in Jayde Panayiotou murder | Algoa FM

 

[Tortoise]

Luthando Siyoni, the man accused of orchestrating the murder of Jayde Panayiotou, is in court to hear the outcome of his bail application.

Siyoni showed no emotion when he was denied bail today. He was deemed a flight risk and likely to intimidate witnesses if released.

HeraldLIVE (@HeraldPE) | Twitter

Self confessed middleman Luthando Siyoni in the murder case of convicted Christopher Panayiotou has been denied bail.#SABCNEWS

UnderratedJourno (@McebisiNgqina) | Twitter

 

[Tortoise]

Siyoni, who faces a murder charge, after he allegedly found a hitman to murder Jayde on behalf of her husband, Christopher Panayiotou, was arrested in May in Kwazakhele apparently after evading arrest for about six months.

The former bouncer at Panayiotou's night club denies he was on the run and told the court he was not even aware that local police were looking for him.

Luthando Siyoni's bail bid fails in the PE Magistrate's Court

 

[Tortoise]

[Magistrate] Mashiyi said his mom deliberately withheld information from the police as Siyoni was found at a building behind his mother's home.

The case was postponed to the 4th of July.

Self-confessed middleman in Panayiotou murder-denied bail | Algoa FM

 

[Tortoise]

Self-confessed middleman in the murder of Port Elizabeth teacher, Jayde Panayiotou, Luthando Siyoni, appeared briefly in the Port Elizabeth Magistrate's Court on Wednesday where his a hearing on his bail was postponed.

The Port Elizabeth Magistrate's Court refused him bail in June.

The court heard from the State Procecutor, Qondile Yelani, that the postonement is to allow for the National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP) to make a decision on the case.

Thus, it was postponed to the 27th of July.

Siyoni makes brief court appearance

 

[tmar]

Self-confessed middleman in the murder of Port Elizabeth teacher, Jayde Panayiotou, Luthando Siyoni, appeared briefly in the Port Elizabeth Magistrate's Court on Wednesday where his a hearing on his bail was postponed.

The Port Elizabeth Magistrate's Court refused him bail in June.

The court heard from the State Procecutor, Qondile Yelani, that the postonement is to allow for the National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP) to make a decision on the case.

Thus, it was postponed to the 27th of July.

Siyoni makes brief court appearance

I have not found results regarding Siyoni and 27 July decision.

 

[JerseyGirl]

Christopher Panayiotou in desperate attempt to appeal his sentence

Christopher Panayiotou, the convicted mastermind behind the murder of his wife, Jayde (28), is still desperately trying to appeal his sentence – despite the fact the court of appeals has denied him leave to appeal.

 

[JudgeJudi]

Good grief, he doesn't give up does he? So now it's an appeal directly to the chief judge of the appeal court. If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.

He's got Buckley's getting to the ConCourt. Even OP couldn't manage to do that. Too bad, so sad.

 

[Tortoise]

Convicted murderer Christopher Panayiotou has lost some privileges behind bars after being found in possession of a cellphone and sim cards in his single prison cell.

Provincial correctional services spokesperson Vuyo Gadu told TimesLIVE on Thursday that the items were found in his cell during a search early in the morning of December 20 2018.

“The following contrabands were confiscated from the single cell of offender Christopher Panayiotou: an iPhone 6 cellphone, plus three sim cards,” said Gadu.

“Offender Panayiotou contravened the regulations in the Correctional Services Act 111 of 1998 as he was in possession of unauthorised articles. As such his privileges will be reduced and this may reduce his amenities to less visits and telephone calls.

Contraband seized in prison cell of wife killer Christopher Panayiotou

 

[Tortoise]

The case against the self-confessed middleman in the murder of Jayde-Panayiotou was postponed yet again.

Luthando Siyoni briefly appeared in the Port Elizabeth Magistrate's Court on Friday. [27 July 2018]

Magistrate Thandeka Mashiyi, postponed the matter to the 31st of August.

Siyoni's lawyer a "no show" in court | Algoa FM

..I'm still looking for anything that's happened on this case since July/August.

 

[JudgeJudi]

Luthando Siyoni’s trial has been set down for August 12. Judge Schoeman postponed the matter to June 20 in order to ascertain if Siyoni would need legal aid representation or if Ngqeza would continue representing him.

Siyoni faces two charges related to his alleged role in the murder of Jayde.

Shortly after his arrest, Siyoni quickly confessed the details of the kidnapping and the murder which were made in statements obtained from both him and his girlfriend at the time, Babalwa Breakfast.

After the trial Siyoni, who had turned state witness, was declared a hostile witness as he had changed his version of events and refused to answer questions put to him. That led to him being charged with murder and conspiracy to commit murder. He disappeared after being charged and was on the run for nearly six months before being apprehended.

Luthando Siyoni murder trial date set

 

[JudgeJudi]

Panayiotou has turned to the Constitutional Court in a bid to overturn his murder conviction after all his appeals failed.

Since his sentencing, he has desperately tried to appeal his sentence, but had no luck after being denied leave to appeal by the Port Elizabeth High Court.

Similarly, when he appealed to the Supreme Court of Appeals (SCA) directly, he was also met with rejection. The SCA believed that an appeal would have no reasonable chance of success.

Consequently he has now turned to the Constitutional Court.

On Monday, his attorney said that papers had been lodged with the ConCourt some time ago but did not specify the date. He said that on June 7 the State had given notice that they would be opposing the application.

The State now has 15 days to file answering papers, then CP’s legal team will file the reply and thereafter they will find out if the ConCourt will hear the application.

Without going into detail on what their constitutional challenge will be, CP’s attorney said the team’s arguments were substantive.

Panayiotou approaches Constitutional Court to challenge sentence