A man had to spend the night in jail after he tried to protect his wife from an alleged police assault.

Mr Istvan Bartfai sat motionless in court on Friday, April 15 trying to make sense of the confrontation the previous night that caused him to end up in jail.

“A man, who does not protect his wife, is not a man. Any man would do what I have done,” he said on Thursday, April 14 after he was arrested for alleged assault and allegedly resisting arrest.

The drama that landed Bartfai in jail happened right in front of a local high school and videos were made of the police hitting Ms Landi Bartfai after an argument about the police’s driving.

“We made our way to the school to pick our daughter up who had hospitality studies that evening. At the stop street my eye caught lights speeding towards us and I thought to myself the vehicle is not going to stop. I stopped again, flashed my headlights and waited a few moments for the vehicle to go by. It stopped in the middle of the intersection. I drove on, passing the vehicle in front,” Landi said.

Landi said the nightmare then started,

“As we pulled away Istvan threw his hands up in the air in dismay for the driver for attempting to drive over the stop street without stopping. There were no markings on the bakkie and no blue lights; we had no way of knowing it was a police van.”

Right in front of the school the white bakkie stopped the Bartfai’s car and according to a witness jerked the passenger door open.

“Istvan got out and an argument between him and the two policemen started. He just wanted to know why they were speeding,” Landi said.

In a video clip one can clearly hear Bartfai telling the police they endangered the lives of him and his wife.

It is then when Landi asks the name of the policeman and when he refuses she tries to take a photo of him. A policeman then hits her phone out of her hand, slaps her, jerks her around and hits her again. Her voice can clearly be heard screaming, “Don’t hit me!” This is when Bartfai climbs in and tries to get the policeman off Landi. The policemen then arrests Bartfai.

WATCH VIDEO HERE:

At the police station Landi was not allowed to see her husband. Even when she told them he has a heart condition, she was still refused.

Word got to a WITBANK NEWS journalist and when she arrived at the police station she found Landi and her children outside the police station.

The journalist went in with Landi and after speaking to the officer in charge and again explaining that Bartfai had a heart condition, they were allowed to see him.

There was another suspect in the temporary detention room with Bartfai and he told the journalist and the officer in charge everything he saw as he was in the back of the police van.

“It truly was not this man’s fault,” he said and pointed to Bartfai.

The suspect, who was arrested for contravening a protection order, said Bartfai stepped in to save his wife who was being attacked by a policeman.

Landi asked the officer in charge if she could give her statement and he told her, “Not now.”

There are cameras in the community service centre and also the detention room, but it is not working. The cameras were sponsored a while ago, but due to lack of maintenance it is not in working order.

Police spokesperson, Capt Eddie Hall said that this case is sub judice and therefore he can’t comment. He did however mention that they are investigating what is on the table, the cases against Bartfai for alleged assault and allegedly resisting arrest.

Bartfai was granted R500 bail and the case was postponed to May 11.

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