CAPE TOWN – An Indian-origin British billionaire businessman, accused of being the mastermind behind the brutal murder of his Indo-Swedish wife while they were on honeymoon in South Africa in 2010, today pleaded not guilty to the crime and admitted he was bisexual.
Shrien Dewani’s trial started in the Cape Town High Court today after he was brought here in April following a lengthy extradition battle that saw him being sent for psychiatric treatment in the UK and South Africa.
Dewani, 34, confessed in a statement read out on his behalf by his lawyer Francois Van Zyl to having had sexual interactions with both men and women physically and through email chats, including with male prostitute Leopold Leisser, who will testify about this for the state.
Leisser claimed that Dewani paid him for sex in the months leading up to the shooting, telling him he regretted his engagement with Anni but was too ashamed to back out due to family pressure, Independent newspaper reported.
“I consider myself to be bisexual,” the court was told. “My sexual interactions with males were mostly physical experiences or email chats with people I met online or in clubs, including prostitutes,” Dewani’s witness statement said, adding he started treatment for this after he met his wife-to-be.
Dewani also pleaded not guilty to Anni’s murder as well as charges of conspiracy to kidnap, robbery with aggravating circumstances and obstructing the administration of justice.
Dewani, dressed in a black suit, tie and white shirt, stood in the dock and looked down at prosecutor Adrian Mopp as Mopp read out the charges in a loud, clear voice.
Prosecutors argue that Dewani conspired with Cape Town residents Zola Tongo, Mziwamadoda Qwabe and Xolile Mngeni to kill his wife two weeks after their lavish wedding.
Taxi driver Tongo, Qwabe and Mngeni are already serving prison sentences in connection with the murder.
Driver Zola Tongo said in a plea bargain during his trial that Dewani had offered him R15,000 to have Anni killed.
Dewani claimed that he was thrown out of the vehicle, and that the last words he had spoken to Anni were in Gujarati, telling her to be quiet and to comply with the alleged hijackers’ demands.
The difficult sexual relationship between the Dewanis is expected to come under the scanner in detail after Anni’s cousin and confidante Sneha Hindocha made some disclosures on this in a statement to Scotland Yard earlier.
Dewani said he was instantly physically attracted to Anni when he met her in May 2009, but Hindocha said Anni had repeatedly told her in messages about Shrien spurning her advances.
Hindocha’s statement paints her cousin as having been an unhappy and reluctant bride who called her a day after the wedding to assist her in getting a divorce.
During the hearing today, Shrien broke down and cried as he heard how Anni would have bled to death very quickly due to massive blood loss. — PTI
The ‘honeymoon murder’
Shrien Dewani is accused of being the mastermind behind the brutal murder of his Indo-Swedish wife while they were on honeymoon in South Africa in 2010
Dewani is charged with conspiracy to commit kidnapping, robbery with aggravating circumstances, murder, kidnapping, and defeating the ends of justice
His wife Anni died when she was shot in the neck as the couple travelled in a taxi on the outskirts of Cape Town
Dewani claimed he and his wife were kidnapped at gunpoint. He was released unharmed, but his wife’s body was found in the abandoned car the next day
