Jason Rohde trial delayed

[caption id="attachment_225094" align="aligncenter" width="629"] Jason Rohde is accused of murdering his wife Susan at the Spier Wine Estate
File picture: Anthony Molyneaux[/caption]

One of the state's key witnesses in the Jason Rohde murder trial has fallen ill. As a result‚ proceedings came to a standstill at the Cape Town High Court on Tuesday‚ where Dr Akmal Coetzee-Khan has been subjected to cross examination by Rohde's defence.

Rohde‚ the director of Geffen International Realty Franchises‚ is on trial for the murder of his wife‚ Susan. Her body was found hanging from a hook mounted on the door of their hotel suite's bathroom.

The defence has argued that she committed suicide‚ but Coetzee-Khan‚ a forensic pathologist‚ said that someone had strangled her then used the cord to stage the suicide.

Last week advocate Graham van der Spuy brought into question Coetzee-Khan's estimated time of death. He claimed Rohde died at 05:40am on July 24 2016.

He then conceded that she could have died between 2am and 8am. Van der Spuy was expected to continue with the cross examination on Tuesday.

State prosecutor Louis van Niekerk submitted a doctor's certificate for Coetzee-Khan. The matter is expected to continue on Monday.