Omotoso trial postponed as defence awaits Supreme Court decision
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Nigerian pastor Timothy Omotoso and co-accused Lusanda Sulani and Zukiswa Sitho at the Port Elizabeth High Court. File photo: Raahil Sain/African News Agency (ANA). Nigerian pastor Timothy Omotoso and co-accused Lusanda Sulani and Zukiswa Sitho at the Port Elizabeth High Court. File photo: Raahil Sain/African News Agency (ANA).
PORT ELIZABETH - Nigerian televangelist Timothy Omotoso, charged with human trafficking and rape, will wait for an outcome after his lawyer had earlier petitioned the Supreme Court of Appeal.
This after the Port Elizabeth High Court earlier dismissed an application for leave to appeal against a decision, to allow the trial to be heard in Port Elizabeth.
Omotoso and his two co-accused, Lusanda Sulani and Zukiswa Sitho appeared briefly in the Port Elizabeth High Court on Monday.
The women are accused of recruiting girls from all over the country for purposes of sexual exploitation.
The televangelist allegedly trafficked more than 30 girls and women who were from various branches of his church to a house in Umhlanga, KwaZulu-Natal, where he allegedly sexually exploited them.
He is facing a total of 97 charges.
Omotoso was arrested on April 20, 2017, by the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, at the Port Elizabeth Airport. He has been denied bail on two occasions as he was deemed a flight risk. The women were arrested in November 2017 and are out on bail of R2,000.
The case was postponed until October 21.