TRUCK driver Mohammed Sathar, who allegedly killed Margate man Richard Duxbury (35) in a road rage incident on the M4 near Montclair two years ago, appeared in court on Monday this week.
Mr Sathar lost his bid to have the case quashed in the Durban Regional Court. He had pleaded not guilty to murdering Duxbury in February 2012 on the M4.
Magistrate Stanley Luthuli refused an application for a discharge as he said Mr Sathar had a case to answer.
“The court is of the view that there is evidence on which a reasonable court could convict. The defence had not shown that the State’s evidence was of such a poor quality that it was beyond belief,” he said.
The defence’s version is that Mr Sathar was driving on the highway when he saw two ‘big white men carrying what looked like sticks’.
He slowed down and they jumped on to the steps of his truck. One allegedly assaulted him through the window. He reached for his gun. A shot went off and he fled. Last year Duxbury’s father Brian, testified for the State that he had been with his son on the day of the murder.
He said Mr Sathar’s truck had forced their bakkie off the road and his son had been shot after he had approached the truck.
Mr Sathar’s advocate Ravi Reddy, argued in the discharge application that the State’s case was ‘riddled with inconsistencies and innuendo’. He added that the State had only used three out of the 18 witnesses who had deposed to affidavits.
“One has to question why these witnesses were not called and whether they would have harmed the State’s case”.
Advocate Reddy questioned the impartially of the investigation team as he said it had failed to preserve possible ‘DNA evidence’ on a baseball bat that Mr Sathar claimed was used by Richard Duxbury to attack him.
State advocate Nadira Moosa said the application was ‘frivolous and based on speculation’.
“The fact of the case is that a shot was fired by Mr Sathar and it struck Richard Duxbury and he was killed.”
She said the witnesses were not called as they were not needed and to suggest otherwise was ‘misleading’.
On Tuesday Magistrate Luthuli told Mr Sathar that he must be ready to present his case at the next hearing. The case was postponed to September.
