The state has suffered yet another setback in the long-running case involving Nigerian televangelist Timothy Omotoso, after Judge Irma Schoeman on Friday dismissed its application for leave to appeal his April acquittal.
In a seven-page judgment, Judge Schoeman found that none of the six questions of law raised by the state in what she described as an unprecedented application were, in fact, matters of law at all.
Instead, she ruled, the application displays dissatisfaction with the factual findings in this matter.
Faced rape, human trafficking charges
The Jesus Dominion church leader along with co-accused Lusanda Solani and Zukiswa Sitho, was acquitted earlier this year of an array of charges, including rape and human trafficking.
Delivering that judgment in April at the Gqeberha high court, Schoeman issued a scathing assessment of the state’s case. She said prosecutors had failed in their duty to prove guilt beyond reasonable doubt.
Undeterred, the state lodged an application in July. It framed what it termed six questions of law. And it argued, among other issues, that the court had not applied the correct approach when evaluating the evidence presented during the trial.
But in her ruling on Friday, Schoeman rejected that argument. She stated that the argument had been that the evaluation of the evidence was unsatisfactory or incomplete.
She emphasised that those are factual assessments and not misdirections of law.
She then dismissed the application.
Major hurdle for prosecution
The decision marks another major hurdle for the prosecution in a case that has spanned years and drawn national attention.
Omotoso was facing 32 charges, including several counts of rape, human trafficking, and racketeering.
He was accused of preying on young women at his Jesus Dominion International Church. He allegedly enticed them with promises of spiritual guidance before abusing them for years.
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