The Anni Dewani Murder Case

ANNI WANTED A BABY: DEFENCE

Anni Dewani went to a doctor before her honeymoon in November 2010 because she was planning to fall pregnant, her husband's lawyer told the Western Cape High Court on Tuesday.

Francois van Zyl, for murder-accused Shrien Dewani, said he had medical notes which showed she visited the doctor on November 4, 2010 and informed him she was trying to conceive.

She also told him she was not on contraceptives and the doctor advised her to take tablets for improving her fertility.

Van Zyl, cross-examining Anni's cousin and State witness Sneha Mashru, said this made her testimony about a supposedly rocky relationship strange.

"I have to put it to you that what she told the doctor, that she wanted to become pregnant, that she wanted to get medication, flies in the face of what you told me about divorce."

Mashru did not seem to waiver from her evidence-in-chief and repeated that when Anni came back from her wedding in India, she spoke to her about not wanting go on honeymoon.

Dewani is accused of the murder of his wife during their honeymoon in Cape Town in November 2010. He has pleaded not guilty to the five counts against him, maintaining that the couple were the victims of a hijacking on November 13, 2010.

The State alleges that he conspired with others to stage the hijacking in return for R15,000.

Her slumped body was found in the abandoned shuttle taxi in Khayelitsha the following day.

Mashru said Anni would have told her about wanting to get pregnant and had been on a double dose of prescription medicine to clear her skin. She was warned to use double contraception for at least a month after taking the tablets because there could be genetic defects or a miscarriage if she fell pregnant.

Van Zyl said Anni had sent a text message to her mother-in-law telling her she was having a great time on honeymoon.

He asked whether she knew if his client was aware of the conversations she and her cousin had had about divorce.

Mashru said while she applied make-up to Anni for her henna party, Anni told her she and Dewani had decided to act for the rest of the wedding.

"I know for a fact that Shrien and Anni's sex life was not good because Shrien was having problems having an erection," Mashru said.

Van Zyl asked whether her acne tablets may have affected her mood.

She replied that Anni seemed the same and that she was only tearful because she was having issues with Dewani.

Dewani would say that his wife stopped taking the tablets in August 2010.

Mashru replied that Anni told her during a 50th birthday party on August 14 that she was taking the tablets.

The court ruled that the doctor's notes were of a personal nature and would not be made available to the media.


Source : Sapa /je/jje/ks/ar
Date : 21 Oct 2014 11:56
 
DEWANI COUSIN LEFT INFO OUT: LAWYER

Anni Dewani's cousin did not tell the British police all the details of a phone conversation she had about a fatal hijacking in Cape Town in 2010, the Western Cape High Court heard on Tuesday.

Francois van Zyl cross-examined the cousin, Sneha Mashru, on what his client Shrien Dewani had told her over the phone just hours after Anni was killed in the hijacking.

Dewani has pleaded not guilty to masterminding her death in an apparent sham hijacking on November 13, 2010.

Mashru previously testified that police recorded their interview with her on November 30, 2010 after the conversation with Dewani raised her suspicions about his possible involvement in the killing and she decided to take action.

In her evidence-in-chief, she said Dewani had told her on the phone that Anni wanted to see the townships and that he was tired and wanted to go home.

He also told her that when they were hijacked, she hid her wedding ring and gave another ring to the men but they got annoyed because they said it was not worth anything.

Looking at the transcript of Mashru's first interview with the police, Van Zyl asked why none of this information was there.

Mashru said her main focus in the interview was the text messages between herself and Anni because it "was something concrete to give to the police".

Deputy Judge Jeanette Traverso asked what she meant by concrete.

"I thought that you could see [in the messages] that the relationship was not good. I am not saying it was not good, you could actually see it," Mashru replied.

She said she mentioned the part about the townships when she made her official statement in January 2011.

Dewani has pleaded not guilty to the five counts against him, maintaining that the couple were the victims of a hijacking on November 13, 2010.

The State alleges that he conspired with others to stage the hijacking in return for R15,000.

Her slumped body was found in the abandoned shuttle taxi in Khayelitsha the following day.


Source : Sapa /je/ks/ar/jje
Date : 21 Oct 2014 13:48
 
DEWANI A PERFECTIONIST: LAWYER

Murder-accused businessman Shrien Dewani is a perfectionist who focused on making everything just right even after his wife Anni's death in 2010, his lawyer told the Western Cape High Court on Tuesday.

"He is accused, rightly so, of being a perfectionist, calculated and controlling. That is his character,' his lawyer Francois van Zyl told Sneha Mashru, who is Anni's cousin and a State witness, during cross-examination.

He was trying to cast doubt on the testimony she gave on Monday, in which she described how strange it had been that British businessman Dewani seemed so focused in planning Anni's funeral instead of being sad and grieving.

She stayed at Dewani's Bristol home after he returned from South Africa, on November 17, 2010, and said she felt very uncomfortable there and that he acted in a very cold and controlling way.

She heard him say to his father that his shoulders were very stiff and he needed to get a massage. He also said his suits were too big for him and he needed to go the tailors.

He also ate a lot of food while she could barely find her appetite.

Van Zyl offered explanations for this behaviour and suggested that her perceptions were perhaps incorrect.

He said Dewani's shoulder was sore because he had injured it while exiting the car during the hijacking.

Regarding the suits, he was a perfectionist and wanted to make sure that his suits fitted him properly because he had suddenly lost weight and wanted to look decent at the funeral.

"The accused will say that he was not the only one involved [in the planning]. Other people actually did most of the planning and submitted to him a Word document which he edited," the lawyer said.

Mashru replied that she saw Dewani checking everything and making sure it was the way he wanted it to be.

She asked him at the time why he did not ask Anni's father Vinod to help with the arrangements.

"He got angry and said I am the husband and I make the decisions."

Van Zyl handed up a string of e-mails between Dewani's family and an events planner who was tasked with "celebrating Anni's life".

The lawyer said this showed that other people were largely involved in the planning of the large funeral, which was held over three days and attended by over 1500 people.

"I never denied the fact that other people were involved in the planning. I said it was strange that Shrien could be so focused," Mashru replied.

The cousin had also testified about how cold and loveless Dewani seemed when they were preparing Anni's corpse for burial, saying he shoved bangles onto her swollen wrists with force and she told him to stop.

Van Zyl said the body was swollen and Dewani struggled to put the bangles on. He also straightened her sari and a necklace so that it looked right.

Mashru said she expected him to be more sad and could not see the love he had for her in that moment.

Changing tack, the lawyer said it was incorrect for her to testify that the Dewani family only cared about their reputation and that Shrien's previous broken engagement was taboo.

"The accused will tell the court that his family was absolutely supportive of him at the time. Their concern was not the reputation of the family. Their concern was that their children should be happy," he said.

Van Zyl added that there had been a number of previous broken engagements and divorces in the family and that they accepted these things happened.

Mashru wanted to relay what Anni had told her about this but could not because it was hearsay evidence.

She said she could not then comment.


Source : Sapa /je/jje/ks
Date : 21 Oct 2014 13:59
 
Another rocky trial.

What is going on with the NPA? All the infighting seems to have cost it the edge.
 
BALLISTICS EXPERT TESTIFIES

A police ballistics expert was called during Shrien Dewani's murder trial on Wednesday to testify about the trajectory of the bullet that killed his wife.

"The wounds described... were the result of a single gunshot fired from the front of the deceased to the back of the vehicle," Warrant Officer Pieter Engelbrecht told prosecutor Adrian Mopp in the Western Cape High Court.

He also testified on where the shooter may have been sitting.

The State's tenth witness, Engelbrecht, was given pieces of sponge from the backrest in the shuttle taxi where Anni Dewani sat when she was shot dead in Gugulethu, Cape Town, on Saturday November 13, 2010.

Her body was found in the abandoned shuttle in Khayelitsha the following day.

"The defect on the backrest of the rear seat can only be in line with a fatal shot if the deceased leaned or moved to her right prior to the fatal shot being fired."

He said the damage to the sponges gave him a trajectory from the left front of the vehicle to its right rear.

Engelbrecht's evidence was in line with the State's version that convicted gunman Xolile Mngeni shot Anni Dewani, who was on the back seat, from the front passenger seat.

Mngeni, who was serving life for pulling the trigger, died of a brain tumour at the weekend.

Dewani is accused of the murder of his wife during their honeymoon in Cape Town in November 2010. He has pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, kidnapping, robbery with aggravating circumstances, conspiracy to commit these crimes, and defeating the ends of justice.

He maintains the couple were the victims of a hijacking on November 13.

The State alleges he conspired with others to stage the hijacking in return for R15,000.

Engelbrecht's involvement in the police investigation began in November 2012, when he was asked to re-test certain exhibits for Mngeni's trial.

He tested the trigger of the firearm and found the pulling action was normal.

He recently conducted an investigation of a VW Sharan which matched the one that was hijacked, and studied post-mortem photographs.

He prepared documentation for the court, including a photo album.

A day before Mngeni's death, he visited him at Goodwood prison and measured the distance from his underarms to his fingertips, which was 72cm on his right side and 74cm on his left. The length of the gun's barrel was 11cm.

The distance between the front left seat and the rear middle seat was 82cm, he testified.


Source : Sapa /je/tk/th/jje
Date : 22 Oct 2014 11:41
 
DEWANI WATCHES SHOOTING VIDEOS

British businessman Shrien Dewani did not flinch on Wednesday morning as the Western Cape High Court was shown police videos re-enacting the shooting of his wife Anni in a shuttle taxi.

He watched the three videos from the dock with the same expression he normally had when taking notes during testimony.

Warrant Officer Pieter Engelbrecht, the State's tenth witness, said the investigating officer asked him to compile possible shooting scenario videos and he made these videos on Tuesday.

Dewani is accused of the murder of his wife during their honeymoon in Cape Town in November 2010. He has pleaded not guilty to the five counts against him, maintaining that the couple were the victims of a hijacking on November 13, 2010.

The State alleges that he conspired with others to stage the hijacking in return for R15,000.

Her slumped body was found in the abandoned shuttle taxi in Khayelitsha the following day.

Engelbrecht's videos, which used police officials in civilian clothing, were representative of versions of the shooting put forward by the State and the defence.

They were compiled to determine the trajectory of the bullet, contact with the firearm and Anni Dewani and her position at the time of her death.

Using a man with a similar build and arm measurements as convicted gunman Xolile Mngeni, Engelbrecht found that a person aiming at full reach from the front passenger seat would have been 40cm short of the backrest but could have made contact with the muzzle of the firearm.

Mngeni died on Saturday following a brain tumour.

The first video showed a man leaning over from the left front seat towards a woman at the right rear. He pointed his firearm at the woman, pretended to shoot and the woman put her left hand up to her chest in defence. She then slumped over onto her side, to the right hand side of the vehicle. The position of the body seemed to resemble how Anni Dewani was found in the vehicle, based on video footage previously shown in court.

The second video showed a man approaching the woman from the left rear door of the vehicle. The woman extended her leg out, the man 'fired' the shot and she collapsed onto her back with her arms crossed over her chest, and her legs lying on the left side of the back seat.

In the third video, the man exited the front passenger seat and moved to the left rear door, opened it and pointed the firearm at the woman in the right rear seat. She continuously kicked her left leg out at the shooter, he grabbed her leg and then "shot" her. She collapsed onto her back with her arms crossed over her chest and her left leg rested on the left hand side of the rear seat.

Asked what he concluded from the videos, Engelbrecht said: "The most probable position would have been from the front left [of the vehicle]".

When Francois van Zyl, for Dewani, cross-examined convicted killer Mziwamadoda Qwabe recently, he put it to him that it would have been impossible, on his version, for Mngeni to have shot Dewani from the front passenger seat.

He said they had gone to visit Mngeni in prison and measured his right arm from the hand to the elbow. It measured 55.5 centimetres.

The distance between the front seat and where Dewani was sitting in the back was 80cm.

"Even if he was standing on his knees on the front seat, leaning over, he couldn't have reached the lady, the deceased's hand, to fire the shot," the lawyer said.

Qwabe replied that his version was the only one he knew because that is what happened.


Source : Sapa /je/ks/jje
Date : 22 Oct 2014 13:52
 
DEFENCE BLASTS WITNESS OVER VEHICLE

A police official who organised the re-enactment of how honeymooner Anni Dewani was shot admitted on Wednesday that the conditions did not match those in the original hijacked vehicle.

Ballistics expert Pieter Engelbrecht seemed to falter as Pieter Botha, for Anni's husband Shrien, fired questions about three re-enactment videos shown to the Western Cape High Court.

The first video showed a woman in the right rear seat being shot from the front passenger seat, while the other two showed a woman in the same position being shot by a man opening the left rear door.

Engelbrecht testified that he conducted an investigation of a VW Sharan vehicle which matched the one that was hijacked and also took measurements of distances between the seats.

He admitted that the vehicle they used was a different model and that it would have been difficult to obtain the original vehicle owned by convicted killer Zola Tongo, who was serving 18 years in jail for his role in the murder.

"I am still trying to understand what on earth you wanted to achieve with taking measurements of a vehicle that had nothing to do with the original vehicle," the lawyer replied, shaking his head.

Dewani seemed excited in the dock. He shook his head often, smiled at times and at one point, looked up to the ceiling and mouthed something.

He is accused of the murder of his wife during their honeymoon in Cape Town in November 2010. He has pleaded not guilty to the five counts against him, maintaining that the couple were the victims of a hijacking on November 13, 2010.

The State alleges that he conspired with others to stage the hijacking in return for R15,000.

Her slumped body was found in the abandoned shuttle taxi in Khayelitsha the following day.

Referring to vehicle photos taken at the crime scene, Botha said it was patently clear that the passenger front seat was more forward-placed than the driver's seat.

Engelbrecht said he could not see the difference. Eventually, he conceded that the front passenger seat was moved a little more forward.

"When you did your tests, did you position the left front seat in the same position?"

Engelbrecht replied that he did not make any adjustments to the test vehicle.

Botha said the middle rear seat was also more forward when compared to the left rear seat.

The defence then asked for the measurements that Engelbrecht took from the original vehicle but he said he did not have them with him.

Prosecutor Adrian Mopp said Engelbrecht's notes were disclosed to the defence. The defence said they had yet to see those measurements.

Botha informed the witness that the original vehicle had an entirely new row of backseats which contained armrests.

Traverso interrupted and asked "as a layperson", whether it was not of the utmost importance to have the exact measurements when trying to come to a conclusion about the shooting.

"No, you are right," Engelbrecht said, shifting side to side in the stand.


Source : Sapa /je/ks/jje
Date : 22 Oct 2014 14:08
 
ESCORT EVIDENCE ADMISSIBILITY ARGUED

UK gay escort Leopold Leisser was called back to testify in his ex-client Shrien Dewani's murder trial on Tuesday, with strict instructions not to talk about a certain conversation they had.

Leisser, 43, the so-called "German Master", was called as the State's 11th witness in the Western Cape High Court on Monday, but was asked to stand down when the defence objected to the admissibility of the conversation.

Dewani is accused of the murder of his wife Anni during their honeymoon in Cape Town in November 2010.

Prosecutor Adrian Mopp had to argue on Tuesday why the court should admit the evidence regarding a disclosure Dewani apparently made to Leisser about his impending marriage to Anni in 2010.

Mopp said he did not intend to introduce evidence relating to activities of a sexual nature. He said the evidence would show a possible motive and a conspiracy to kill Anni while on honeymoon in Cape Town.

The defence argued the evidence was irrelevant.

After considering the arguments, Deputy Judge President Jeanette Traverso said: "I am not going to allow the evidence and rule it as inadmissible."

Earlier, Mopp argued that relevance was not determined in a vacuum.

He said that at the admissibility stage, the judge's role was to estimate the potential contribution of the evidence and not its weight.

"The sufficiency of the evidence will be determined in the light of all the evidence and we make the submission that the motive of the accused is relevant."

Traverso said she had to consider his submissions in light of what was already placed before her, such as common cause facts.

Mopp said further that Dewani was neither procedurally disadvantaged nor prejudiced as his defence would be able to challenge what was being presented.

Traverso asked how long the relationship between Dewani and Leisser lasted.

Mopp said the physical relationship took place between September 2009 and April 2010. However, the pair had maintained contact after Anni's death.

"The period of contact is not only prior to the accused getting engaged and marrying the deceased. It spans the entire period."

Pieter Botha, for Dewani, said finding that evidence was relevant was not enough. It needed to be sufficiently relevant to avoid cases dragging on for years.

He argued that Dewani had admitted at the outset that he was bisexual and had same-sex encounters in the past.

"There cannot be any talk of a relationship. The two of them met on three occasions... Where is the relationship?" Botha asked.

The evidence neither proved nor disproved that he had a motive, he said.

Dewani has pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, kidnapping, robbery with aggravating circumstances, conspiracy to commit these crimes, and defeating the ends of justice.

Dewani claims the couple were hijacked as they were being driven through Gugulethu in a minibus on Saturday, November 13, 2010.

He was released unharmed and Anni driven away. She was found shot dead in the abandoned minibus in Khayelitsha the next morning.

The State alleges he conspired with others to stage the hijacking and paid them R15,000.


Source : Sapa /je/th/jk/lp
Date : 28 Oct 2014 12:14
 
DEWANI ESCORT WENT TO POLICE

Gay escort Leopold Leisser approached the police in 2010 after he saw on television that one of his clients Shrien Dewani had been arrested and accused of killing his wife Anni, he told the Western Cape High Court on Tuesday.

Leisser, 43, was called back to testify on condition that he not go into detail about something Dewani disclosed to him in a conversation, as per a court ruling.

The man who refers to himself as the "German Master" on his website was dressed in a charcoal suit and brown tie. He testified in English with a German translator sitting next to him, just in case.

He previously testified that he and Dewani met three times in 2009 and 2010, and that Dewani was the first of his clients to sleep over at his house. They had intended to meet again but never got around to it.

Dewani is accused of Anni's murder during their honeymoon in Cape Town in November 2010. He has pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, kidnapping, robbery with aggravating circumstances, conspiracy to commit these crimes and defeating the ends of justice.

Dewani claims the couple were hijacked as they were being driven through Gugulethu in a minibus on Saturday, November 13, 2010.

He was released unharmed and Anni was driven away. She was found shot dead in the abandoned minibus in Khayelitsha the next morning.

The State alleges he conspired with others to stage the hijacking in return for R15,000.

Leisser said he and Dewani texted each other in June 2010. In August that year they kept in contact via text messages and gay dating website Gaydar.

"At some point, it may have been in August or September, he said he is going away in the middle of October for four to five weeks," Leisser said.

"He also told me the nature of the travel. He was getting married. I was a bit surprised why he was online and I even asked him should you not be arranging your wedding or marriage?"

Leisser noticed at the start of December that Dewani's Gaydar profile had been deleted. He sent him a text message asking if everything was okay, because he knew his client wanted to meet him again.

"He just responded that he is very, very busy and he will be in touch again," Leisser said.

A few days later, he was in Ireland when he saw the news broadcast of Dewani's arrest.

"First of all, I didn't think anything bad of it. I thought oh my God, I knew that guy."

He contacted the police in England on December 7 and they interviewed him a week later. Leisser handed over his mobile phone records to the police and a sketch of his apartment.

He asked a friend for advice and was put in touch with a media agency. He was later interviewed by The Sun journalist Nick Parker.

Leisser was paid UK18,000 for speaking out and the media agency received UK7000. The escort explained that his expenses totalled UK5000 a month and it was necessary to be paid for the stories.

"I had to shut down my profession for a while... There was no other income for four months."

On December 14, he was handed a letter from Dewani's lawyers stating that everything he was claiming was a lie and that Dewani had never had contact with him.

The stories were published on December 15 and 16, 2010.

Given the opportunity to cross-examine the witness, the defence said they did not have any questions.

Leisser was excused from the stand.


Source : Sapa /je/th/jk/jje
Date : 28 Oct 2014 13:40
 
COURT SHOWN FOOTAGE OF DEWANI COUPLE

Surveillance footage of British businessman Shrien Dewani and his wife Anni arriving at a Cape Town hotel for their honeymoon was shown during his murder trial in the Western Cape High Court on Tuesday.

The clips were shown during the testimony of their former shuttle taxi driver Zola Tongo. He is the State's 12th witness in Dewani's trial and is serving an 18-year jail term for his role in Anni's death.

Prosecutor Shareen Riley asked Tongo about his first encounters with Dewani at the Cape Grace hotel, where the businessman allegedly proposed a job involving a hit on someone he knew.

Dewani is accused of the murder of his wife during their honeymoon in Cape Town in November 2010. He has pleaded not guilty to the five counts against him, maintaining that the couple were the victims of a hijacking on November 13, 2010. The State alleges that he conspired with others to stage the hijacking in return for R15,000. Anni Dewani's body was found in the abandoned shuttle taxi in Khayelitsha the following day.

The first video clip shows Tongo's vehicle parked at the entrance of the Cape Grace on November 12, 2010, at 5.12pm.

The court was informed the video time was around three minutes slow.

The clip shows Tongo dropping off the couple after picking them up at the Cape Town International Airport.

Anni enters the hotel and her husband and Tongo speak near the boot of the vehicle. Tongo said he knew at the time she was Dewani's wife.

A few minutes later, at 5.19pm, Dewani enters the hotel.

In the second video clip, at 5.22pm, Tongo moves his vehicle from the front entrance to the parking lot.

Riley asked if Dewani ever invited him into the hotel. Tongo said no.

A minute later, Dewani leaves the hotel and enters Tongo's vehicle in the parking lot. Ten minutes later Dewani gets out and walks back to the hotel.

During his evidence-in-chief on Monday, Tongo testified that Dewani told him in the car that the job he had for him would help his business grow and that he would get many referrals.

He apparently explained to Tongo that part of the job involved someone being "removed from out of sight". Tongo said he was not involved in such jobs but knew someone who might have the relevant contacts.

Asked at the time whether he knew who must be killed, Tongo said: "He explained to me, my lady, that it is his business or somebody who is in business with him and that person will be arriving the following day".

He knew at that stage it was a woman.

"He explained to me that he is going to pay an amount of R15,000 and when the job is finished, I am going to get my payment or my remuneration of R5000 and then we parted ways on that score."

The pair apparently exchanged cellphone numbers.


Source : Sapa /je/jje/th/lp
Date : 28 Oct 2014 14:24
 
joelus said:
Why should his sexuality be relevant?
Click to expand...

Because he was forced into this marriage by family, his preference is for men, and he didn't want to be married to this woman.
He might have seen her murder as his only way out.
 
marine1 said:
Because gay men dont marry females :confused:
How can it not have bearing on the case?
Click to expand...
Because it doesn't have any relevance to whether or not he arranged to have his wife murdered. Many gay men have married females for a variety of reasons, they don't necessarily murder their wives.

Garyvdh said:
Because he was forced into this marriage by family, his preference is for men, and he didn't want to be married to this woman.
He might have seen her murder as his only way out.
Click to expand...
He might have, yes. But being gay is not evidence that he did.
 
joelus said:
Because it doesn't have any relevance to whether or not he arranged to have his wife murdered. Many gay men have married females for a variety of reasons, they don't necessarily murder their wives.
He might have, yes. But being gay is not evidence that he did.
Click to expand...

It provides a motive for the murder... why do you think the prosecution is trying to argue this point if it is not relevant?
 
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