‘We are one step closer to justice’: Brother of honeymoon murder victim Anni …

He was speaking as it was reported
that 34-year-old Shrien Dewani will fly out of London’s Heathrow Airport
this evening, arriving in Cape Town tomorrow morning and being whisked
straight to a court hearing.

The
millionaire businessman is accused of ordering the murder of his wife,
who was shot as the couple travelled in a taxi through the Gugulethu
township while they were on honeymoon.

Dewani’s
lawyers had argued that he should not be forced from the UK to face
trial until he had recovered from mental health problems including
depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Members of the Dewani family leave the family home in Bristol on the day of Dewani’s expedition to South Africa

He is due to fly tonight from London, expected to be formally charged for the murder of his wife tomorrow

He has said ‘it has been very difficult for my family… There are so many questions we need answers to’

Journalists gathered for a briefing at the Western Cape High Court ahead of Shrien Dewani’s expected arrival

An official told the room Dewani’s legal team can apply for bail once he has been officially charged with murder

South African Department of Justice and Constitutional development spokesperson Mthuzi Mhaga talks to the media in Cape Town outside the Western Cape High Court after briefing the press

But
in March judges at the High Court rejected all his grounds for appeal
against removal and denied him the chance to take the case to the
Supreme Court.

The care home
owner is expected to appear at Western Cape High Court in Cape Town for
a brief hearing tomorrow morning, and his mental health will then be
assessed by a doctor.

It is
expected that he will be treated at the Valkenberg hospital while
awaiting trial, and South African media have reported that security at
the facility, where a number of notorious criminals are held, has been
beefed up in anticipation of his arrival.

Murdered: Anni Dewani was 28 when she was murdered in a remote suburb of Cape Town in 2011

Anger: Vinod Hindocha (right), the father of
murdered bride Anni Dewani (left with murder suspect Shrien), said he
had always questioned how genuine his son-in-law’s mental illness could
have been

Claims: Prosecutors claim Dewani hired a hitman to kill his wife, which Dewani has consistently denied

Three men have already been convicted and jailed over Mrs Dewani’s death, including taxi driver Zola Tongo, who was given 18 years after admitting his role in the killing.

Dewani has always denied the charges, and earlier this year BBC Panorama suggested that Mrs Dewani could have been shot by mistake in a struggle, and that there were significant contradictions in the account given by Tongo.

It also claimed that a soundtrack obtained from CCTV showed that hotel receptionist Monde Mbolombo, who has been granted immunity from prosecution, could have played a key role in what happened.

Secure: The Valkenberg psychiatric hospital in Cape Town, where Shrien Dewani will be assessed to see if he is mentally fit to stand trial for allegedly organising the honeymoon murder of his wife Anni

Mbolombo claimed that he had put Tongo in touch with the gunmen, but had no further involvement; however, questions have been raised over comments he was recorded making.

Denial: Shrien Dewani will board a plane to South Africa tonight after three and a half years fighting to avoid it

The Mail on Sunday revealed that, in an audio track taken from CCTV, he says: ‘This is how it’s going to happen. Listen, don’t give them it all up front. Give them what you’ve got on you so they don’t come crying to you.’

Xolile Mngeni, who prosecutors claim was the hitman, was convicted of premeditated murder over the shooting, and another accomplice, Mziwamadoda Qwabe, also pleaded guilty to murder and was handed a 25-year prison sentence.

Speaking of his sister, Mr Hindocha said she was ‘always smiling’.

‘She was always a smiling person, always happy… she cared. The most important things for her were always her family and friends; if they were happy then she was happy,’ he said.

He added that the family had received messages of support from around the world.

‘Still today, after three and a half years, we are getting messages from all over the world, every day, people that actually want justice. They are even offering us free accommodation when we come to South Africa, many people have done.

‘People have just been very, very supportive, I think that is something that is keeping us alive at least.’

Mrs Dewani’s uncle, Ashok Hindocha, also speaking on ITV’s Daybreak , said: ‘We will be in South Africa when the case starts; tomorrow is just a formal procedure.’

He said they did not mind if the trial was televised. He said his niece had become a ‘daughter of the world’ and her family had received support from all over the globe, particularly Britain and South Africa.

‘We want to know what happened to Anni, that is it,’ he said.

Guilty: Taxi driver Zola Tongo (pictured) was jailed for 18 years after he admitted his part in the killing

TIMELINE: MURDER OF ANNI DEWANI AND THE PURSUIT OF HER HUSBAND

 2010

• November
  13 – Shrien and Anni Dewani’s cab is hijacked as their chauffeur drives
  them through the rough township of Gugulethu on the outskirts of Cape
  Town on their honeymoon. Dewani
  escapes but his wife is driven off and killed. Her body is found the
  next morning in the back of the abandoned vehicle. A subsequent
  post-mortem examination finds she was shot in the neck.
• November 16 – Dewani leaves South Africa. Xolile Mngeni, from the township of Khayelitsha, is arrested by Western Cape Police.
• November 17 – Mngeni is charged with the hijacking and murder.
• November 18 – Police arrest a second suspect, Mzwamadoda Qwabe, also from Khayelitsha.
• November 20 – Police arrest a third suspect, the couple’s taxi driver Zola Tongo, from Cape Town.
• December
  7 – Tongo is jailed for 18 years after making a plea agreement with
  prosecutors. The taxi driver claims Dewani offered him 15,000 rand
  (£1,300) to have his wife killed – something strongly denied by the
  British businessman’s family. Dewani is arrested in Bristol under a South African warrant on suspicion of conspiring to murder his wife.
• December
  8 – Dewani appears at City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London
  and is remanded in custody as the South African authorities fight to
  extradite him.

2011

• March
  3 – Dewani, who is said to be suffering from severe post-traumatic
  stress disorder, is sent to the Priory Hospital in Bristol.
• April 20 – Dewani is compulsorily detained under the Mental Health Act at Fromeside Clinic, a secure hospital in Bristol.
• May
  3-5 – Dewani’s extradition hearing begins at Belmarsh Magistrates’
  Court in London. Prosecutors cite an unnamed witness who claims Dewani
  confessed he needed to ‘find a way out of’ his marriage months before
  the wedding.
• August 10 – District Judge Howard Riddle rules that Dewani can be extradited to South Africa to stand trial.
• September 28 – Home Secretary Theresa May signs an order for Dewani to be extradited to South Africa.
• September 30 – Dewani lodges a High Court appeal against Mrs May’s decision.

2012

• February
  10 – The Western Cape High Court in South Africa hears that Dewani is
  to be added as the fourth accused when the murder trial eventually gets
  under way.
• March 30 – The
  High Court temporarily halts Dewani’s extradition, ruling that it would
  be ‘unjust and oppressive’ to order his removal. But the court said it
  was plainly in the interests of justice that he should be extradited ‘as
  soon as he is fit’ to be tried.
• August
  8 – South Africa’s National Prosecuting Authority announces that Qwabe
  has pleaded guilty to murdering Mrs Dewani along with charges of
  kidnapping, robbery and the illegal possession of a firearm. He is
  jailed for 25 years.
• In a
  statement as part of his plea deal, Qwabe said that after he and Mngeni
  staged the fake hijacking, he drove the car as Mngeni kept a pistol
  pointed at Mrs Dewani in the back seat before shooting her.
• November
  19 – Mngeni is found guilty of premeditated murder at the Western Cape
  High Court. He is also convicted of robbery with aggravating
  circumstances and illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition. But he
  is acquitted of Mrs Dewani’s kidnapping.
• December
  3 – Dewani is allowed to switch from Fromeside to Blaise View mental
  health hospital in Bristol, described as a more ‘open, relaxed and calm
  environment’, after a court hears he is a ‘husk’ of his former self and
  ‘adapted poorly’ to treatment.
• December 5 – Xolile Mngeni is jailed for life for shooting Mrs Dewani.

2013

• February 13 – Dewani is admitted to hospital suffering chest pains, his family say.
• April 11 – Dewani’s mental health is said to have improved ‘significantly,’ a court hears.
• May 15 – His QC Clare Montgomery tells another court update that his mental health has deteriorated.
• July 1 – The full extradition hearing begins at Westminster Magistrates’ Court.
• July 24 – Chief Magistrate Howard Riddle rules Dewani should be extradited to South Africa
• October 22 – Dewani wins a further hearing in his legal battle against extradition on a point of law

2014

• January 31 – Dewani loses his final High Court challenge to avoid extradition
• April 7 – The murder suspect is set to be flown from Britain to Cape Town
  

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