Court Rejects Ex-officers Bid To Remove Judge In Cosas 4 Trial

The Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg has dismissed former apartheid security officers bid to secure the recusal of the presiding Judge in the COSAS 4 trial.

Judge Dario Dosio of the Gauteng High Court will not be recusing himself from the historic trial which seeks justice for the murder of three teenagers in Krugersdorp and the attempted murder of one in 1982 when explosives were detonated in a pump house on a deserted mine property.

This after Christiaan Siebert Rorich, a former Security Branch explosives expert, and Tlhomedi Ephraim Mfalapitsa, a former Askari who are implicated in the COSAS 4 murders failed show a reasonable apprehension of bias on the part of the Presiding Officer.

The pair face charges of kidnapping, murder as a crime against humanity, murder and apartheid as a crime against humanity.

This, as Judge Dosio quashed the claim that knowledge of the refusal of amnesty in the matter creates a reasonable apprehension of bias.