Murder trial of British businessman starts in South Africa
A taxi driver who drove the couple from Cape Town International Airport to a hotel in the town at the time has confessed to involvement in the wife's murder
By Hassan Isilow
JOHANNESBURG
The trial of a British businessman for alleged charges of plotting to murder his wife during their 2010 honeymoon in South Africa is expected to start in Cape Town on Monday.
Shrien Dewani, 34, is accused of hiring hit men who murdered his 28-year-old wife, Anni, during their honeymoon in Cape Town in 2010.
A taxi driver who drove the couple from Cape Town International Airport to a hotel in the town at the time has confessed to involvement in the wife's murder.
He alleges that Dewani had offered him 15,000 rand (roughly $1400) to kill his new wife.
Dewani reportedly went with his wife on a sightseeing tour through the Gugulethu Township, where she was shot in a faked attack.
Three men accused of being part of the group are currently serving their length jail sentences.
Dewani, who faces five charges including murder, was extradited to South Africa in April and has since been held at a Cape Town psychiatric hospital.
For the past three years, legal representatives for the British businessman have been fighting in court against their client's extradition to South Africa to face trial.
This is the second most high-profile murder case which has attracted international media attention in South Africa this year.
The trial starts weeks after a Pretoria high court found Internationally-recognized South African Paralympian Oscar Pistorius guilty of capable homicide in the death of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
Unlike in the Pistorius case where the media was allowed to broadcast the entire trial live, media will only be allowed to pre-record Dewani's trial and broadcast later.
Many South Africans are eagerly waiting for the outcome in the Dewani case which runs till December.
Women rights groups might protest outside the court during the trial to show support to the Anni family.
"Now that I am here, all I ask for is the full story and justice," Anni Dewani’s father Vinod Hindocha told a press conference late Sunday in South Africa.
He said he was confident the South African judicial system would conduct a fair and open trial in his daughter’s death.
Hindocha also expressed gratitude to thousands of people who have been supporting them.
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