Dewani prepares to trash SA

SA's head of police Bheki Cele, left, and publicist Max Clifford.

SA's head of police Bheki Cele, left, and publicist Max Clifford.

Published Jan 20, 2011

Share

As UK businessman Shrien Dewani today prepared to fight his extradition to South Africa to face charges of murdering his new wife Anni, it emerged his legal team would base its case on trashing national police commissioner Bheki Cele, the country’s prisons and its justice system.

A top Cape Town lawyer revealed to the Cape Argus that Dewani’s lawyers were considering citing the recent case of British journalist Simon Wright, who was arrested during last year’s World Cup and who announced today he was suing the Minister of Police for R50 million for defamation.

Wright was the senior Sunday Mirror journalist who was arrested for allegedly “harbouring” and interviewing soccer fan Pavlos Joseph after he wandered into the England team’s dressing room at the Cape Town Stadium and confronted the players after a match against Algeria.

Wright was later released after paying a R750 fine for a minor immigration transgression – but not before public statements had been made about him by a range of South African office-bearers.

Wright’s lawyer, Cape Town’s William Booth, said at the time: “Cele alleged that he (Wright) was involved in all kinds of illegal dealings and arranging for the World Cup authorities to be placed in a bad light as far as security was concerned, that there was conspiracy and all kinds of absurd, blatant lies.”

Booth told the Cape Argus today he had served the Ministry of Police with a letter of demand on Wright’s behalf, asking for R50m because of Cele’s comments.

Wright’s case is similar to Dewani’s: when Wright returned to England after the World Cup, he openly accused Cele of “lying” and “blackmail”, and of pronouncing him guilty prematurely.

In a published account of his ordeal, Wright’s story bore the headline: “Justice in South Africa – it’s a sick joke.”

The same accusations have been levelled at Cele by Dewani’s spokesman, PR doyen Max Clifford.

Late last year, Cele, speaking about the Dewani case, said: “A monkey came all the way from London to have his wife killed here.”

Clifford slammed the comments, saying Dewani had “more chance of walking on the moon” than of being fairly tried in South Africa.

Dewani, 31, is accused of orchestrating the murder of his wife Anni, 28, in a hired shuttle while they were on their honeymoon in Cape Town in mid-November.

The businessman was due to appear at the City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court today for a preliminary extradition hearing.

Since the Dewani murder, Booth has gone on record speculating that Dewani’s lawyers would be likely to cite the Inge Lotz case and the failed prosecution of Glenn Agliotti in arguing that Dewani would not get a fair trial.

“It’s been established in South Africa that there’s been manipulation of evidence – that goes to the heart not only of the police investigation, but of the prosecution,” Booth has told reporters.

Another potential arrow in the defence’s quiver could be the state of South Africa’s prisons, an impeccable legal source told the Cape Argus last night.

Here, again, Dewani’s defence team could be inadvertently assisted by another key South African legal figure – this time retired Judge Deon van Zyl. Not only was he critical of the police as he acquitted Lotz’s boyfriend, Fred van der Vyver, of murdering her, but he is now an inspecting judge of the country’s prisons.

Last month, Judge Van Zyl warned of the number of awaiting-trial prisoners – people presumed innocent until proven guilty – who were being tortured and killed in police cells and prisons “at will”.

The judge is quoted as saying in his report: “The conditions under which inmates are detained are shockingly inhumane and do not remotely comply with the requirements set forth in the constitution.”

Sources said Dewani’s legal team could argue that their client should enjoy the guarantee of rights under the European Human Rights Commission, and that this would not be possible in a South African prison.

And arguments about the integrity of South Africa’s judicial system could bring into play yet another South African, this time policeman Mike Barkhuizen.

Sources said Barkhuizen, the lead investigator in the Dewani mattter, had been in London for at least a week working closely with British police and prosecutors and could be called as a witness to bolster the case for extradition.

Barkhuizen has taken over the police docket of the Lotz murder, after the failed prosecution of Van der Vyver, but he was also involved in security for the World Cup, which Joseph happily breached, leading to the famous Wright interview.

South African police national spokesman Sally de Beer has consistently said that the police would not comment on “everything his (Dewani’s) spin-doctors come up with”. Instead, she said: “Whatever evidence we have we will present in court.”

Cele has in the past 48 hours promised that investigators would present a plausible motive as to why Dewani would allegedly have wanted to have his wife murdered – but has declined to divulge details.

Since Anni Dewani’s body was found in their abandoned shuttle in Gugulethu on November 14, the couple’s driver, Zola Tongo, has been jailed for 18 years after confessing to having taken part in her murder. He named Dewani as the mastermind behind the killing.

Two other men, Xolile Mngeni, 23, and Mziwamadoda Qwabe, 25, are due to appear before the Wynberg Regional Court on February 25 on charges of murder and kidnapping. Dewani was arrested at Southmead police station in Bristol on December 7 and is out on £250 000 (R2.8 million) bail. - Cape Argus

Related Topics: