Family ‘looking for answers’ over death

The grief-stricken family of honeymoon murder victim Anni Dewani say they are still looking for answers after her British millionaire husband was cleared of plotting her brutal death.

Shrien Dewani, from Westbury-on-Trym, near Bristol, heaved a sigh of relief as Judge Jeanette Traverso dismissed the case against him, after evidence from prosecution witnesses was described as being “riddled with contradictions”.

Speaking on the steps of South Africa’s Western Cape High Court after Dewani was acquitted, Anni’s sister Ami Denborg said the family felt “failed” by the justice system, having waited four years for the case to be brought against the 34-year-old businessman wrongly accused of staging the car-jacking in which she was gunned down. Denborg said the family would be “haunted” by the decision.

Holding back tears, she said: “We came here looking for answers and we came here looking for the truth and all we got was more questions.

“We waited patiently for four years to hear what really happened to Anni and to hear the full story of what happened to our dearest little sister.

“All we wanted was to hear all the events and the hope of actually finding that out has kept us, as a family, going.

“Unfortunately we believe that this right has now been taken away from us.”

Drawing on evidence that Dewani had secret relationships with gay men in the months before they married, Denborg said: “We heard that Shrien has led a double life and that Anni knew nothing about it. And we just wish that Shrien had been honest with us and especially with Anni.”

Three men have already been convicted of plotting to kill Anni, while a self-confessed “middle man” who set up the murder may also face justice having previously been granted immunity.

Prosecutors said bisexual Dewani had long planned to get out of the relationship to Swedish-raised engineer Anni, 28, and arranged a car-jacking on their honeymoon in Cape Town in November 2010 in which he would escape unharmed and Anni would be killed.

But Dewani’s defence team criticised prosecution witnesses and said the case against him was weak.

Judge Traverso said chief prosecution witness cab driver Zola Tongo’s claims about the murder were “riddled with contradictions” and “highly debatable”. The judge said the evidence presented by the prosecution fell “far below” the required threshold.

Dewani heard the judge declare that the evidence from the three criminals already convicted over his bride’s murder was “so improbable, with so many mistakes, lies, and inconsistencies you cannot see where the lies ended and the truth begins”.