Alleged Miscarriages of Justice > The kidnapping and shooting/murder of Anni Dewani while on her honeymoon in South Africa. Trial of Shrien Dewani was held in Cape Town, SA.
Shrien Dewani trial commences in Capetown.
Anna:
LAST UPDATED AT 13:14 ON Tue 7 Oct 2014
The lifestyle of British millionaire Shrien Dewani was revealed in "uncomfortable" detail on the first day of his trial for the murder of his wife on their honeymoon in South Africa.
After four years of legal battles and delays, the trial finally got underway yesterday in Cape Town, where Dewani is accused of hiring three men to kill his wife in a staged carjacking on 13 November 2010.
On Monday he denied the fives charges against him, which include murder, kidnapping and defeating the ends of justice, and within just a few hours of proceedings, intimate details of his sexuality and luxurious lifestyle were laid bare.
In a statement read out by his lawyer, Dewani revealed that he was "bisexual" and has had "sexual interaction with both males and females".
The court heard how his sexual interactions with men were "mostly physical experiences or email chats" with people he "met online or in clubs, including prostitutes such as Leopold Leisser".
Karen Allen, the BBC's Africa correspondent, says the admission may serve to "neutralise" some of the "fevered" press speculation in recent months about gay escort Leisser, who claims Shrien paid him for sex. She predicts that the trial is likely to see a "detailed public examination" of Anni and Shrien's relationship.
Leisser previously claimed Shrien was desperate to get out of his marriage to Anni, but Shrien yesterday insisted that he was in love with his wife, despite the fact that they were "both headstrong and often argued with each other".
Allen says Shrien "stood upright and for the most part composed on the first day of his trial", although he "sobbed quietly" when one of his love letters to Anni was read out in court.
The court also heard how Shrien hired a private jet to propose to Anni in Paris, held a week-long stag party in Las Vegas and organised a lavish wedding in Mumbai.
His millionaire lifestyle was "revealed in uncomfortable detail", writes David Smith in The Guardian. For the most part Shrien was "composed and businesslike, but there were glimpses of tears and brittleness", he says.
The defendant, who was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress, anxiety attacks and depression after his wife's murder, appeared "unusually sensitive to noise, twitching on occasion, and wore headphones to amplify whoever was addressing the court", adds Smith.
Shrien's bisexual revelation was plastered across most of South Africa's newspapers today, but a few focused on the "harrowing" video of Anni's body shown in court.
"The full weight and horror of the murder was brought into the courtroom when police video footage of the crime scene where Anni was found was screened," says Marianne Thamm at South Africa's online newspaper the Daily Maverick.
Thamm says there were "gasps" from the courtroom at the sight of Anni "slumped in the back seat of the silver VW Sharan, still wearing the black cocktail dress and strappy high heels she had dressed herself in only a few hours earlier".
Meanwhile, the Daily Beast describes how her hair was "blowing in the breeze" as the camera panned from her "diamante-encrusted heels to her blood-soaked body, which was punctured by bullets in her left arm and her throat".
http://www.theweek.co.uk/people/shrien-dewani/3997/shrien-dewani-arrives-for-first-day-of-honeymoon-murder-trial
colombosstogey:
--- Quote from: John on October 07, 2014, 02:04:10 PM ---Looks very much as was suspected, the marriage was a convenience intended merely to camouflage Dewani's sordid secret. What I haven't quite worked out yet though is, was the last four years simply a delaying tactic?
--- End quote ---
Like a fox in a corner, clever fox, he cried mental health issues and the idiots in the UK accepted it, we have to protect murderers in this country dont you know.
I know Africa i lived there. IF you dont give a gunman what they want they shoot you they dont ask you, they shoot you or hack you to death. A real attack would have raped her, and maybe even him, and killed them both and even taken her beautiful shoes.
They dont leave witnesses. When we were there in Nairobi a journalist was killed because he wouldnt give over his car. He managed to explain to police before he died. I think then they were coming in from Uganda like bloody pirates.
That poor sad girl, what a horrible way to die. God rest her soul.
I dont even care if this guy is gay or straight, but he has an evil heart either way.
Anna:
Shrien Dewani 'agreed price for wife murder'
British businessman Shrien Dewani agreed to pay about £1,300 to a hitman for the murder of his wife Anni in South Africa, a court has been told.
On the second day of the trial in Cape Town, Mziwamadoda Qwabe said he was asked to make it look like a hijacking.
Mr Dewani, 34, from Bristol, denies murdering his wife Anni, 28, on their honeymoon in 2010.
The couple were held at gunpoint while being driven in a taxi through Gugulethu township near Cape Town.
Qwabe told the Western Cape High Court that taxi driver Zola Tonga had told him "there was a husband who wanted his wife to be killed".
Mr Dewani faces five charges, including murder and lying about the circumstances of Swedish national Anni's death.
Mziwamadoda Qwabe has already been sentenced to 25 years in prison for the murder of Anni Dewani
Qwabe, from Cape Town, was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2012 for the murder of Anni Dewani.
Prosecutors claim Mr Dewani conspired with him, and other Cape Town residents Zola Tongo and Xolile Mngeni.
Qwabe, 29, told the court Tongo phoned him and said he had a job that needed to be done - that someone needed to be killed.
He said Tongo agreed to meet him the next day to discuss the murder, and a price of 15,000 rand (about £1,330 at the exchange rate at the time) was agreed.
The pair then arranged to meet up with Tongo's taxi for the attack, during which Mr Dewani's phone would also be taken.
He told the court the money was due to be left in a "cubby hole" in the vehicle which would later be split before the pair spent an evening "socialising".
Qwabe was asked if there was any discussion about a weapon. He said: "I knew there would be a firearm involved."
He told the court Tongo called him later and told him the route the taxi would take on the evening of 13 November 2010.
Shrien Dewani, who is on trial in South Africa, denies any involvement in his wife's death
Describing the carjacking, Qwabe said: "[Mngeni] had the gun. As it [Tongo's car] approached I got into the driver's side.
"[Mngeni] got into the passenger side and Zola got into the back. I saw in the (rear view) window a guy and behind me was a lady," he said.
"I ordered Zola to get out of the car. He told me the money was in a pouch behind the front passenger door.
"I stopped the vehicle, I asked the husband to get out of the car.
"The husband was now out of the vehicle and I drove on."
Qwabe told the court he was behind the wheel when Anni was fatally wounded.
Anni Dewani was killed in the back of a taxi in South Africa
He said he was concentrating on the road at the moment Mngeni killed her.
"I heard a gun shot. [Mngeni] said 'I shot the lady'.
"I pulled over on to the pavement and stopped the car. I saw she [Anni] was on the back seat of the car."
Qwabe said he found the bullet casing then threw his gloves away.
He told the court 10,000 rand was in the pouch and 4,000 rand was seized from "the husband".
Qwabe admitted he had lied in court at a bail hearing before he admitted his guilt over the murder.
Francois van Zyl, representing Dewani, said: "At that bail hearing you testified under oath, you pleaded not guilty because you said you had an alibi. Is that a lie?"
Anni Dewani's father, Vinod Hindocha, was among family members to attend the trial in Cape Town
Qwabe replied: "My lawyer at the time told me to plead not guilty."
Mr van Zyl said: "I repeat the question. Was that a lie under oath?"
Qwabe answered: "Yes."
The court was told there had been no conversations with Tongo about how Anni would be killed, only that it had to look like a hijacking.
Mr van Zyl asked: "You never had a discussion about how this woman was going to be killed?"
Qwabe answered: "No, sir."
He told the court it was not decided who would strike the fatal blow, what weapon would be used, or where the killing would take place.
The trial was adjourned until Thursday.
More on This Story
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-29534010
Anna:
--- Quote from: colombosstogey on October 08, 2014, 05:26:59 AM ---Like a fox in a corner, clever fox, he cried mental health issues and the idiots in the UK accepted it, we have to protect murderers in this country dont you know.
I know Africa i lived there. IF you dont give a gunman what they want they shoot you they dont ask you, they shoot you or hack you to death. A real attack would have raped her, and maybe even him, and killed them both and even taken her beautiful shoes.
They dont leave witnesses. When we were there in Nairobi a journalist was killed because he wouldnt give over his car. He managed to explain to police before he died. I think then they were coming in from Uganda like bloody pirates.
That poor sad girl, what a horrible way to die. God rest her soul.
I dont even care if this guy is gay or straight, but he has an evil heart either way.
--- End quote ---
Yes.... another poor girl dead at the hands of evil. He has had plenty of time for rehearsal though.
Why do they give them so much time, excuses, excuses, before going to court? It baffles me.
Her family are suffering the same as Reeva's. Very sad.
This world of easy killing, is getting worse by the minute and the courts are not helping it, one bit.
Anna:
From 6th Monday
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