Getting your wife pregnant before being arrested is not an automatic get out of jail free card, a judge said in refusing an accused bail.

According to a report in The Mercury, Limpopo High Court (Polokwane) Acting Judge MS Monene said: ‘It surely cannot be that our courts are seen to be sending an unintended message that all a would-be criminal has to do to ensure post-arrest release on bail is to ensure that he leaves a spouse expectant with child’.

Accused John Obinyeluba turned to the High Court after the lower court had refused to give him bail. He told the judge his bail appeal was based on a new fact – he had learnt only after his arrest that his wife was pregnant.

He said he needed to be with his wife during her pregnancy.

Obinyeluba said as a breadwinner for his family, his continued detention would impose economic hardships on his family in the form of bond repayment hiccups and school fee shortfalls for his offspring.

He is awaiting trial after his arrest on charges of corruption and dealing in drugs.

Monene said that looking at the grounds listed for appeal and listening to counsel, he was unable to find that the magistrate exercised his discretion wrongly in finding that the appellant had not adduced any new facts that militated for his admission to bail.

The judge said economic hardships being visited upon a person denied bail and/or upon his kith and kin were an expected consequence.

‘They do not suddenly unexpectedly befall an accused person denied bail and, like in all matters where bail is denied, they do not arise nor are they discovered as a novelty after the denial of bail. This alleged new fact is just a non-starter.’

Full report in The Mercury

Judgment