The Bethal Magistrates Court postponed the matter to 25 May 2020.
Bethal town’s double-murder accused Francois Pretorius is returning to court to apply for bail, in order to be temporarily out while the matter is being dealt with at the Bethal Magistrates Court.
He is accused of killing a couple, 70-year-old Hannes Beukes and his wife 67-year-old Ibel on 17 March 2020 at their farmhouse outside Bethal.
Pretorius was arrested on 26 March 2020 – found by cops at the house of his father-in-law in Belfast and has been in jail since then.
During Pretorius’ court appearance Wednesday this week 20 May 2020, the court ordered the date of 25 May 2020, Monday next week, to be the day of the bail hearing.
The Ridge Times reports that the police were made aware of the bodies after a motorcyclist spotted a vehicle in the veld close to the Bethal Dam and alerted the police.
The cops found Pretorius at the farm of his father-in-law Ernst van der Berg in Belfast.
The Middelburg Observer reported on the day of his arrest that Pretorius asked van der Berg to raise his children as he was about to make a confession for the couple’s murder.
“He doesn’t want a hearing or anything. He says he wants to bear his punishment. He asked me to raise his children,” van der Berg was quoted as saying of Pretorius, adding he was crying everyday and was so “sad about the couple’s children”.
He said after the murder, Pretorius allegedly fled to Hatfield in Tshwane where he left his car and then walked back to Mpumalanga’s Belfast town to him.
He allegedly didn’t want the cartrackers to follow him with the cops.
But now Pretorius wants to come out on bail…
His matter goes back to court on 25 May 2020.
(edited by MLM)
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