Honeymoon murder accused Shrien Dewani will not appear in a United Kingdom court next week, his publicist said in a report on Tuesday.
“He is not well. He is obviously suffering from the grief of losing his partner and the added stress of all this. He has lost 10kg and isn’t doing well,” said spokesperson Max Clifford, according to a report in the Star.
“He won’t be in court next week. Proceedings will be a mere formality, a 20-minute in-and-out. A date for further proceedings will be set.”
Dewani’s extradition case was postponed on January 20 to February 8 after a UK court heard that he was suffering from a stress disorder and could not appear.
At the January 20 hearing in the City of Westminister Magistrate’s Court, Chief Magistrate Howard Riddle said he would review whether Dewani should attend on February 8, when the extradition case against him would be formally opened.
Dewani is facing charges of conspiracy to murder, murder, kidnapping, robbery with aggravated circumstances and obstruction of the administration of justice, the UK-based Press Association reported.
South African authorities were seeking to have Dewani, from Westbury-on-Trym in Bristol, return to the country to stand trial.
Anni Dewani was shot when the newlywed couple’s minibus was hijacked in the Gugulethu township on the outskirts of Cape Town on November 13.
She was found dead in the back of the abandoned vehicle with a bullet wound to her neck.
Driver Zola Tongo was sentenced to 18 years in prison in South Africa after he submitted a plea agreement which implicated Dewani in an alleged R15 000 hit on Anni. – Sapa