No end in sight to Van der Vyver trial
Publish date: 16 May 2007
Issue Number: 1825
Diary: Legalbrief Today
Category: Tenders
The murder trial of Fred van der Vyver, accused of bludgeoning his student girlfriend Inge Lotz to death, is entering its third month despite it initially being expected to take a month to complete, says the Cape Argus.
After having called 37 of an initial list of 91 witnesses, State advocate Christenus van der Vijver is hopeful that their case will be closed by the end of next week. Then it is the turn of the defence and it is not known at this stage how many witnesses they intend calling. But, after running over the expected time, lawyers and assessors have found that the matter is clashing with cases they were booked for long in advance. The court hasn\'t sat in the past two days and the matter will resume only today (Wednesday). There have also been reports that the unexpected delays have also been a financial burden on the Van der Vyver family and that it has had to cut down on the number of defence lawyers present in court every day. Full Cape Argus report
