LAWYERS for British-Indian businessman Shrien Dewani, accused of the honeymoon murder of his Indo-Swedish wife, are planning a new approach to avoid trial in South Africa.
The 33-year-old Bristol-based millionaire has been fighting against being extradited to the country in relation to the murder in November 2010.
It has now emerged that his lawyers plan to tell the High Court at the next hearing in October that Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) should assemble a case against Dewani so that he could stand trial in the UK due to his mental condition, according to a report in the ‘Observer’.
Dewani is being treated for post-traumatic stress disorder at a UK clinic.
A British judge had ruled in July that while he was not yet fit to plead, the severity of the allegations meant the court had to place greater weight on the obligations under the UK’s extradition agreement.
Indo-Swedish wife Anni, 28, was kidnapped and shot dead in a taxi on the outskirts of Cape Town after the couple was car-jacked.
Police in South Africa claim that Dewani hired hitmen to kill his bride in Cape Town, but the businessman has always maintained that he was forced out of a taxi by thugs.
On Thursday (September 19) a ‘BBC Panorama’ investigation revealed the concerns of a leading forensic scientist over the quality of the police evidence against Dewani.
Ballistics experts claim that the bullet which killed Anni may have rebounded off her hand and hit her chest by accident “during a struggle”.
A post-mortem examination showed that the bullet had struck her left hand and gone through her chest, causing fatal neck injuries.
At the high court on October 22, lawyers intend to ask that the CPS proceed with a prosecution to limit further delays in a case that is nearing its third anniversary.
