Honeymoon murder suspect Shrien Dewani should be sent to South Africa to face charges of conspiring to murder his wife, a court has decided.
Belmarsh District Court Chief Magistrate Howard Riddle rejected Dewani’s plea to stay in the UK.
Dewani, 31, is currently being kept at Fromeside Psychiatric Clinic under the Mental Health Act. Dewani’s psychiatrists said Dewani is suffering from depression and post-traumatic stress disorder which could lead to self-harm or suicide.
Care home manager Dewani stands accused of conspiring to kill his wife Anni Dewani as they drove in a taxi through the Guguletu township near Cape Town last November.
Dewani claims the car was hijacked and that the killers drove off with his wife before she was found shot dead the following day. Dewani denies any involvement with his wife’s murder.
Taxi driver Zola Tonga pleaded guilty to the murder and was jailed for 18 years. Two local men are also facing trial for being the alleged gunmen.
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Judge Riddle said that it was in the public interest to agree to extradite Dewani.
He excused police chief Bheki Cele’s comments that Dewani was a “monkey” saying that his comments would carry no weight in giving the suspect a fair trial.
Although the judge said he’d heard evidence of problems with gang culture and sexual attacks within South African jails, he said that the prison authorities had told him that Dewani would get special treatment and would be held in a single cell.
