INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPERS
Captain Esmerald Bailey laughs with her attorney William Booth outside the Cape Town Magistrates Court on Thursday. Picture: Masixole Feni
Suspended Hawks police captain Esmerald Bailey, charged with corruption, no longer has to report to the police twice a week after that bail condition was scrapped.
Bailey, 43, and co-accused Waleed Diedericks, 25, appeared in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court yesterday.
Bailey, who was the investigating officer in the highly publicised baby Jordan Norton trial, was arrested on December 9 last year during a police operation.
She is alleged to have organised the sale of police uniforms and ammunition, while Diedericks was allegedly the runner.
Yesterday, State advocate Xolile Jonas told the court that the case against Bailey could be moved to the Specialised Commercial Crime Court in Bellville.
Diedericks will be tried separately in Cape Town.
Bailey will face more charges because other incriminating evidence was found during a police raid, the State said.
Bailey and Diedericks have been charged with corruption, possession of ammunition and theft.
Diedericks’s lawyer, Mahdney Arnold, told the court that the State had also agreed to scrap one of Diedericks’s bail conditions so that he no longer had to report to the Milnerton police station.
The remaining bail condition is that they must both notify the investigating officer if they plan to leave the province.
Magistrate Jasthree Steyn extended Bailey’s R10 000 bail and transferred her case to Bellville for her next appearance on April 5.
Diedericks, also out on R10 000 bail, is due back in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court on March 26.
[email protected] – Cape Argus
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Hawks captain’s bail conditions eased