Igbor “The Russian” Russol approached the Western Cape High Court in a bid to appeal a magistrate’s refusal to grant him bail.
|||Igor “The Russian” Russol approached the Western Cape High Court on Thursday in a bid to appeal a Cape Town magistrate’s refusal to release him on bail.
Russol has been in custody since his arrest in February after Magistrate Jasthree Steyn dismissed his bail application, finding there was a likelihood he would intimidate State witnesses.
Russol appealed to the High Court on Thursday and his advocate, Pete Mihalik, argued the magistrate’s refusal of bail was based solely on the contents of a local newspaper report.
Mihalik submitted that the magistrate became fascinated with the newspaper article and treated it as probative evidence. He added that it set a dangerous precedent when a judicial officer was swayed by a newspaper report and treated it as evidence.
Mihalik further submitted that the magistrate did not attach sufficient weight to other evidence contained in Russol’s affidavit, including that Russol did not have any previous convictions or pending cases, was not a flight risk and has never been arrested for endangering any member of the public.
Mihalik submitted that the bail application should not have been heard as a schedule five bail application, but rather as a schedule one bail application, where the onus is on the State to prove it is not in the interests of justice for him to be released.
In the criminal case, the State alleges that Russol and his co-accused, Kevin Bailey and Simon Scott, extorted about R730 000 from Cape Town businessmen and stole R250 000 from another between November 2010 and January last year
Acting Judge Nape Dolamo is to give judgment on the bail appeal on Monday. - Cape Argus
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