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.
Anni Dewani - Introduction to the case
Joanne:
Anni Dewani was the lady murdered in South Africa on honeymoon. Her husband Shrien Dewani (her new husband) has been extrdited to South Africa to stand trial.
Anni Dewani (née Hindocha, born 12 March 1982) was a Swedish-born ethnic Indian Lohana Hindu woman who, while on her honeymoon in South Africa, was kidnapped and then murdered whilst taking a taxi on a slum tourism trip through Gugulethu township near Cape Town on 13 November 2010. Taxi driver Zola Robert Tongo later admitted guilt on the charges of murder in a plea bargain, and was sentenced on 7 December 2010, to 18 years in jail. Two further defendants, Xolile Mnguni, 23, and Mziwamadoda Qwabe, 25, face charges of murder, aggravated robbery and kidnapping.
In his admission of guilt statement, Tongo alleged that Dewani's husband, British national Shrien Dewani of Bristol, had offered him a sum of 15000 rand to murder his wife. South African authorities are currently trying to extradite Shrien back to South Africa via the British legal system, while Shrien Dewani continues to claim innocence within the kidnap and murder plot. Shrien Dewani's family described the allegations of Tongo as "totally ludicrous."
Anni DewaniThe Hindocha family, Hindus living in Uganda, were forced to leave the country in the early 1970s after ruler Idi Amin expelled them. Granted residence in Sweden, they settled in Mariestad, where their daughter Anni was born and raised. After training as an engineer, she joined Ericsson. After collecting Anni's ashes from a London-based undertaker in the first week of March 2011, the Hindocha family scattered them in her favourite area of the Vänern lake.
Shrien DewaniShrien Dewani is also a Hindu Lohana and was born in Bristol, and raised at the family home in Westbury-on-Trym. Educated at Bristol Grammar School and the University of Manchester, he qualified as a chartered accountant with Deloitte, working in the City of London. In 2005 he resigned his position, to help found and run his family's chain of PSP Healthcare old peoples homes.
Anni Hindocha visited her cousin Sneha in Luton, Bedfordshire, England in 2009, and met Shrien Dewani through mutual friends. Their first formal date was to watch The Lion King at the Lyceum Theatre in London's West End, and they then alternated their weekend meetings between Bristol and Stockholm. After gaining permission from her family, Shrien proposed to Anni at the Hôtel Ritz, Paris, in June 2010, with a £25,000 diamond engagement ring balanced on a red rose. Shortly afterwards, Anni moved to Bristol to help her fiancé run his family's care home business. Under her maiden name, in 2010 Anni entered Bristol's Top Model competition. The couple married at the Lake Powai resort outside Mumbai, India, on 29 October,.300 guests attended the traditional three-day Hindu marriage event. They were planning a civil ceremony that would take place in the UK in 2011, for friends who could not attend the Indian ceremony.
MurderAfter landing at Cape Town International Airport on 7 November,, the couple took an internal flight, and stayed for four nights at the Kruger National Park. On 12 November,, the couple returned to Cape Town International Airport, and were then driven by Zola Tongo to the five-star Cape Grace hotel.
Shrien then commented to the South African Police Service and the press, that his wife had wanted to see the real Africa. They decided to travel to Mzoli's BBQ restaurant, as recommended by chef Jamie Oliver in his magazine that year. Located in the Gugulethu township, the couple arranged to be driven there by Tongo in his VW Sharan taxi.
But after dining at a restaurant in Strand, and while being driven around the township while undertaking slum tourism, Shrien stated that the taxi had been hijacked by two armed men, who removed Tongo. Now held at gunpoint, the couple were driven around the township, being told by the kidnappers: "We are not going to hurt you. We just want the car." After 20 minutes, at a distance of 11 miles (18 km) from the original hijacking, after being threatened at gunpoint, Shrien was thrown out of the back window of the moving taxi.
After Shrien flagged down a passing car and contacted the police, a police helicopter spotted the Sharan taxi abandoned 2 miles (3.2 km) away in the township of Khayelitsha. At 07:50 on the morning of 14 November, Anni Dewani was found dead inside the back of the VW Sharan in Lingelethu West. Severely beaten and bruised, she had suffered a single gunshot wound to her neck. Police later confirmed that Anni's Giorgio Armani wristw..ch, a white-gold and diamond bracelet, her handbag and her BlackBerry mobile phone were missing assumed stolen.
The rest can be read at -:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Anni_Dewani
Who think's the husband did it? I do.
Padgates staff:
I think two (or it might be three) people have been jailed reagrding this already. Whether Shrien Dewani gets extraditied we'll see.
The wiki page has been updated-: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Anni_Dewani#Conviction_of_Zola_Tongo
There's a programme here-: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiOIUgrTvso
John:
Anni Dewani was a Swedish-born ethnic Indian Lohana Hindu woman who, while on her honeymoon in South Africa, was kidnapped and then murdered whilst taking a taxi on a slum tourism trip through Gugulethu township near Cape Town on 13 November 2010.
frank50:
Ive got to say that the prospect of Dewani getting a fair trial ( notwithstanding that he's clearly guilty) is diminished by the fact that the investigating officer up to last week ( I assume he is now suspended from all cases) was none other than Botha, the bumbling idiot in the Pistorius case.
John:
--- Quote from: frank50 on February 25, 2013, 03:02:49 PM ---Ive got to say that the prospect of Dewani getting a fair trial ( notwithstanding that he's clearly guilty) is diminished by the fact that the investigating officer up to last week ( I assume he is now suspended from all cases) was none other than Botha, the bumbling idiot in the Pistorius case.
--- End quote ---
I quite agree Frank. South Africa appears to resemble the Wild West now with Warrant Officer Hilton Botha shooting up a minibus carrying seven people in order to make an arrest. Now he is also facing seven attempted murder charges.
Is this really the best that South Africa can come up with in such high profile cases?
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