Shrien Dewani, a British businessman wanted for extradition in South Africa on charges of ordering his wife’s murder while on honeymoon, was detained on Wednesday in a secure mental clinic, his lawyer said.
Dewani was held at the Fromeside clinic in Bristol, south-west England, after staff kicked him out of another private hospital for disruptive and aggressive behaviour, said lawyer Julian Knowles.
Dewani (31) had originally been detained on a judge’s orders at the Priory Hospital in Britain on March 15 for treatment for post-traumatic stress after he took an overdose of pills.
He has now been held under mental health laws at the Fromeside Clinic, having been ejected from the Priory, Knowles told a bail hearing at the City of Westminster Magistrate’s Court in London.
Extradition
Knowles said Dewani’s legal team would continue to fight his extradition on the grounds of his poor mental health and prison conditions in South Africa.
District Judge Howard Riddle renewed Dewani’s bail of £250 000, but said that he no longer had to wear an electronic tag because of the secure conditions at the new hospital.
A full extradition hearing is due to begin on May 3.
Dewani’s wife Anni (28), whose family live in Sweden, was shot and killed during a reported carjacking on the outskirts of Cape Town.
Zola Tongo, the driver of the taxi in which the young bride and her husband were travelling, said he was paid R1 500 for his role in the murder.
He was sentenced to 18 years in jail after he turned state’s witness and implicated Shrien Dewani in plotting to kill Anni.
Dewani denies any involvement.
South Africa’s police chief, Bheki Cele, on Monday retracted his controversial remark made in December calling Dewani “a monkey”. — AFP