A JUDGE on Monday (November 19) found a South African man guilty of killing Swedish newly-wed Anni Dewani while she was on honeymoon in Cape Town two years ago, amid claims her husband organised the hit.
“I’m satisfied that the accused has committed the crime of murder,” Judge Robert Henney told the High Court, delivering the verdict against Xolile Mngeni.
Dewani, a Swede of Indian origin, had been married for just two weeks when she was killed in November 2010, in what prosecutors say was a faked hijacking.
Henney told the High Court that Mngeni, a suspected small-time drug dealer, had plotted with two co-accused to carry out the premeditated murder for 15,000 rand (now $1,700/£).
The judge convicted the 25-year-old of firing the shot that killed Dewani, robbery with aggravating circumstances and illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition. Arguments in Mngeni’s sentencing will start on Wednesday (November 21).
Dewani’s British husband Shrien Dewani is accused of orchestrating the hit, but has protested his innocence and is fighting extradition to South Africa.
“We still want him to come to South Africa,” National Prosecuting Authority spokesman Eric Ntabazalila told reporter, saying the state had hoped to try Dewani alongside the three South African accused.
“Our number-one aim was to get all four of them in the dock but we could not delay the trial.”
The judge did not rule on Shrien’s alleged culpability, saying no direct evidence had been presented about his involvement, but focused on the role of Mngeni in Dewani’s death in the back of a car after her husband had been let go.
“A plan was devised in which it would appear that the vehicle in which the deceased and her husband were passengers was hijacked,” said Henney.
“During this incident, the deceased was shot once through the neck by the accused as a result of which, she died.”
Two local men already jailed over the killing have fingered Shrien Dewani as their paymaster.
Mngeni, who was cleared for trial after undergoing surgery for a brain tumour and needed a walking frame to move to and from the dock, appeared unmoved as the verdict was handed down.
He had pleaded not guilty to killing the bride, but admitted that his palm print was on the car in which Dewani’s lifeless body was found in a poor Cape Town township, and had also pointed out key scenes to police.
The judge dismissed Mngeni’s version of the night’s events as “riddled with improbabilities, inconsistencies and untruths” and his testimony as “dishonest”.
The Swedish tourist was found with her hands tucked under her chin, on her right side on the back seat of the car belonging to taxi driver Zola Tongo, who is serving 18 years for his role in her death.
Mngeni had denied the testimony of co-accused Mziwamadoda Qwabe, who was jailed for 25 years after entering a plea bargain that named Mngeni as the gunman.
But the judge said Qwabe had proven a stronger witness than Mngeni, whose credibility he repeatedly shot down.
“The accused did not take the court into his confidence during the course of the trial,” said Henney.
“The only answer he could give against the mountain of evidence against him ranges from a bare denial of the allegations, (to) a rather late revelation of an alibi which proved to be unconvincing.”
Henney also rubbished Mngeni’s claims that he was tortured by police trying to extract a confession. Mngeni’s explanation of how he came to possess items stolen during the killing, some of which were found in a friend’s shack where he had spent the night, was also thrown out.
Mngeni was acquitted on a charge of kidnapping, with the motive of the attack ruled as having been murder.
Shrien Dewani is being treated for depression and post-traumatic stress disorder at a secure mental hospital in the southwestern English city of Bristol ahead of a court decision on his extradition.
