Millionaire on trial over wife’s murder
Print Edition
A MILLIONAIRE businessman from Britain goes on trial today accused of masterminding the murder of his wife during their honeymoon in South Africa four years ago.
Shrien Dewani’s case has finally reached trial after he lost a three-year extradition fight in Britain and was ruled mentally fit to stand trial.
He was sent back to South Africa in April to answer charges for the murder of his Swedish-born bride Anni, who was shot dead on November 13, 2010.
Dewani, 34, is accused of orchestrating the hit by hiring three South Africans to kill the 28-year-old in Cape Town.
He denies the charge, claiming the pair were hijacked at gunpoint during their honeymoon as they drove through a Cape Town township in a taxi. Dewani escaped, but his wife’s body was found in the abandoned car the next day.
The three South Africans have been tried and convicted and are serving prison sentences of between 18 years and life for their role in Anni Dewani’s death.
Taxi driver Zola Tongo admitted guilt in a plea bargain along with another man, Mziwamadoda Qwabe. The two were sentenced to 18 and 25 years respectively.
Protracted legal battle
A third man, Xolile Mngeni, was later found guilty of firing the shot that killed Anni, and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Tongo’s claim that Dewani had offered him 15,000 rand (US$1,300) to have Anni killed is expected to play a key role in the prosecution’s arguments.
Dewani fought a protracted legal battle to avoid being extradited from Britain to South Africa, claiming he had mental health problems. But an assessment by South African psychiatric experts found he was fit to stand trial.
The prosecution is expected to argue that Dewani is gay and plotted to have his wife killed to escape an arranged marriage. Both Dewani and Anni are of Indian origin.
Contents of two statements to the police by Anni’s cousin and by a Birmingham male prostitute make startling claims of an unhappy relationship.
Sneha Hindocha, in a statement cited by South Africa’s The Sunday Independent, chronicles a rocky 17-month courtship where Anni repeatedly felt sexually rejected.
The 40-year-old gay prostitute, Leopold Leisser, claimed in a separate statement Dewani was his client.
Leisser, according to the Saturday Star, said Dewani told him he was getting married to a “lovely girl,” but needed “to find a way out of it.”
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