Cape Town – A fifth pre-trial conference will be held in the Western Cape High Court on Friday, for three men allegedly linked to the murder of paediatrician Dr Louis Heyns.

At their last appearance on May 23, lawyers for Malmesbury business owner Juan Liedeman and brothers Marthinus and Sarel van der Walt told the court the matter was not yet ready for trial.

In a pre-trial conference in April, prosecutor Samantha Raphels said a trial date for the three had been set down for August 4.

Raphels said a possible plea agreement was on the table for Liedeman, but that nothing had been finalised.

Judge President John Hlophe postponed the matter for another pre-trial conference.

Heyns, a University of Stellenbosch medical professor, went missing last May. His body was found in a shallow grave in Strand that month.

The brothers face charges of killing and robbing him.

Liedeman faces charges of being in possession of Heyns’s stolen vehicle.

The Director of Public Prosecutions decided to charge him with robbery as an accessory after the fact, and defeating the ends of justice.

He was released on R20,000 bail in June last year, after proving exceptional circumstances existed to warrant his release.

Liedeman said in a bail application affidavit that he had received threats from the Van der Walts before and after his arrest last year.

SAPA