A woman accused of orchestrating the abduction of her six-year-old daughter, who vanished over a year ago in South Africa, has gone on trial.
Kelly Smith, along with her boyfriend Jacquen Appollis and their friend Steveno van Rhyn, was arrested after her daughter, Joshlin, disappeared in February last year near their home in Saldanha Bay, close to Cape Town.
Joshlin’s disappearance sparked nationwide concern, but despite an extensive and widely publicized search, she remains missing.
All three defendants have pleaded not guilty to charges of kidnapping and human trafficking.Initially, Smith claimed that Joshlin went missing while under Appollis’s supervision. However, prosecutors later alleged that Smith had “sold, delivered, or exchanged” her daughter and deliberately misled authorities about the circumstances of her disappearance.
As the search for Joshlin continued, suspicion shifted toward Smith after her former co-accused, Lorentia Lombaard, became a state witness, as reported by South Africa’s Daily Maverick.
The case also caught the attention of Sports Minister Gayton McKenzie, who offered a reward of one million rand (£42,500; $54,000) for information leading to Joshlin’s safe return.
The trial is scheduled to take place from March 3 to March 28 at the Saldanha multi-purpose centre, which has been converted into a high court to allow the local community access to the proceedings.
