Yoshini Perumal|Published
Twenty years after she acted in common purpose to kill her lover’s wife, convicted murderer Mumtaz Osman, is petitioning for condonation and leave to appeal her sentence in the Pietermaritzburg High Court.
Osman was convicted in November 2010 for the murder of Monika Manilall, a mother of two who was shot and killed while she was holding her 18-month-old baby.
Manilall was gunned down in her home in Howick in February 2006.
Osman, Manilall’s businessman husband Sanesh Manilall, and contract killer Mboniseni Mbatha were sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder.
Sunesh Manilall shot himself at his home in Howick West in July 2017, the night before he was due to be arrested to serve his life sentence.
Last week, Osman’s legal team, comprising attorney Avir Maharaj and Advocate Simphiwe Mlotshwa, petitioned for condonation and leave to appeal her sentence in the Pietermaritzburg High Court and the Supreme Court of Appeal.
In an affidavit submitted to court, Osman, a mother of three, said the life sentence imposed upon her was “redolent with anger, and startlingly inappropriate.”
She cited that the court never took her three children into consideration when they sentenced her.
“The life sentence induces a sense of anger, especially in light of the fact that the trial court did not hear vital evidence regarding my status as primary care giver at the time of sentencing.
“I am a primary caregiver of three children but the court never investigated as prescribed by law, the impact sentence will have on my children.
“The Constitutional Court ordained that it is not the sentencing of the primary caregiver in and of itself that threatens to violate the interests of the children. It is the imposition of the sentence without paying appropriate attention to the need to have special regard for the children's interests that threatens to do so,” the affidavit read.
“The purpose of emphasising the duty of the sentencing court to acknowledge the interests of the children, then, is not to permit errant parents to avoid appropriate punishment. Rather, it is to protect the innocent children as much as is reasonably possible in the circumstances from avoidable harm.
“There are further reasonable prospects that another court on appeal will find that when applying the determinative test that, having regard to all the relevant circumstances, that the minimum sentence of life imprisonment is disproportionate in this matter.”
Osman detailed the challenges she faced while imprisoned, including that communication with her family was extremely difficult as the majority of them reside in Durban, while she was serving her sentence at the Johannesburg Female Correctional Services.
She said her family undertook to raise money for the transcripts and instructed an attorney to brief her legal team to peruse the transcripts with a view to draft an application for leave to appeal papers.
A transcript of the sentencing was attached to the petition.
In sentencing, Judge President Msimang said all the evidence presented by the State came together tidily and pointed in one direction, namely, the guilt of all three accused.
He said the evidence was “like a neatly stitched garment, not a yarn out of place.”
Maharaj said they were awaiting feedback from the Supreme Court of Appeal.