Judge refuses Patel’s application for leave to appeal
Judge refuses Patel's application for leave to appeal, he now intends to take his application to the Supreme Court.
POLOKWANE – Advocate Saleem Khan (SC) has told Polokwane Observer that his client, convicted murderer and businessman Rameez Patel, has instructed him to apply for leave to appeal the sentence handed down by retired Limpopo High Court judge Joseph Raulinga.
The application will be filed before the Supreme Court of Appeal.
This follows Judge Raulinga’s refusal to grant Patel permission to apply for leave to appeal the judgment that found Patel guilty and sentenced him to life imprisonment.
Patel has been held at the correctional facility since December last year, following his sentencing.
Raulinga had granted the application for Patel to apply for leave to appeal in February, and it was heard on Thursday.
Essentially, Patel is requesting that sections of the judgment be revisited by a different court, as he insists, as pleaded, that he is not guilty of the 2015 murder of his first wife, Fatima.
Also read: Patel awaits High Court decision
Fatima was shot and killed under mysterious circumstances at the couple’s gated home in Nirvana. The court’s finding relied on circumstantial evidence.
Khan said he would file the application with the Supreme Court within two weeks. If granted, his client would then apply for bail pending the appeal.
Patel has been behind bars for more than three months, the first time he has served time since his initial arrest.
At that time, he was granted bail of R250 000 under conditions that required him to report to a police station weekly and inform the investigating officer in his case if he needed to travel outside the permitted radius.
Shortly after Thursday’s application, the state countered by applying to have the request struck off the roll, arguing that they found it confusing.
The state further stated that they had received an incorrect set of papers from Khan and his team regarding the application.
Khan opposed the state’s application, and Judge Raulinga rejected it.
Patel’s legal team believes that Raulinga erred in several of his judgment decisions and ignored certain aspects of the case that, in their view, exclude Patel as Fatima’s killer.
