/ 1 July 2013

Dewani extradition hearing set to start

Dewani Extradition Hearing Set To Start

A five-day extradition hearing is due to start on Monday at the Westminster Magistrates Court.

Dewani (33) is accused of orchestrating the death of his 28-year-old wife Anni, who was shot as the couple travelled in a taxi on the outskirts of Cape Town in November 2010.

He has been receiving treatment for mental health problems at a hospital in Bristol, but there have been fluctuations in his condition.

Anni Dewani was shot when a taxi in which the couple were travelling was hijacked in the Gugulethu, Western Cape. Dewani and the driver of the taxi, Zola Tongo, were ejected from the car before Anni Dewani was driven away and killed.

She was found dead in the back of the abandoned vehicle with a bullet wound to her neck. Tongo was jailed for 18 years after he admitted his part in the crime.

Last year Xolile Mngeni was convicted of premeditated murder for shooting her.

​Prosecutors claimed that Mngeni was a hitman hired by Dewani to kill his new wife, something that Dewani has consistently denied.

Extradition
The extradition hearing was ordered after Mngeni's claim that Dewani orchestrated the incident.

Another accomplice, Mziwamadoda Qwabe, also pleaded guilty to charges over the murder and was handed a 25-year prison sentence.

Both Tongo and Qwabe claimed Dewani wanted it to appear as if he had nothing to do with his wife's murder. – Sapa