Port Elizabeth High Court in Gqeberha, South Africa has struck out an application by the founder of Jesus Dominion International Church Pastor Timothy Omotoso and two others to declare evidence against them in a rape and trafficking case inadmissible.
Mr Omotoso, 63, and his South African assistants are facing 32 counts including racketeering, trafficking in people, rape and sexual assault. The charges were initially 63 but some witnesses dropped out of the case.
While he was denied bail, his female co-defendants accused of being accomplices – Lusanda Sulani, 41, and Zikiswa Sitho, 33 – had since been granted bail.
They were arrested in April 2017.
Omotoso and his co-defendants had asked the court through their lawyer, Peter Daubermann, not to accept the evidence, saying they were obtained “unconstitutionally,” according to a report by South African newspaper Daily Sun on August 21.
However, the court, presided by Irma Schoeman dismissed the application.
Regional spokesperson of Eastern Cape’s National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) Luxolo Tyali told the newspaper that Omotoso allegedly recruited people and through his co-accused “paid and arranged for the complainants to travel to his hotels in Durban, Israel or Nigeria.”
“However, once the complainants arrived, Omotoso or his assistants would inform them of house rules which included that their cellphones be switched off, they were not to contact their male companions and they were to obey his instructions,” he stated.
Mr Tyali said the complainants and other female church members were allegedly kept in one room where they also slept.
He added that Omotoso would allegedly select one of the complainants to go to his private bedroom, where he allegedly raped or sexually assaulted them.
The matter has been adjourned until November 9.
Omotosho has branches of his church in Israel and Nigeria.
