A bail application by alleged Isis loyalists Sayfudeen Aslam Del Vecchio and his wife Fatima Patel failed in the Verulam Regional Court on Thursday.

The couple‚ along with a boarder‚ Ahmad “Bazooka” Mussa‚ are alleged to have kidnapped and murdered British-born‚ Cape Town botanists Rod and Rachel Saunders.

The elderly botanists are understood to have been murdered in February while they toured the province. The mortal remains of Rod Saunders were found on the Tugela River banks and identified using DNA profiling two weeks ago. The remains of Rachel Saunders have not yet been found.

Magistrate Irfaan Khalil denied Del Vecchio’s and Patel’s application for bail‚ saying that they had failed to outline exceptional circumstances that warranted their release ahead of their trial.

A key pillar of Del Vecchio and Patel’s application was that the state had a weak case against them‚ and included allegations that the kidnapping of the Saunders’ had been staged by the CIA or FBI.