South African authorities are so confident honeymoon murder suspect Shrien Dewani will be extradited, they are not thinking about what steps to take should his extradition be denied.
“We are not entertaining the possibility that he may not be extradited. We don’t see that as a possibility. From a legal point of view, we’re confident,” National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesman Mthunzi Mhaga said.
Dewani, who has been in custody for nearly five months, is expected to appear in a UK court today as his formal extradition hearing is scheduled to start. At the end of the hearing, set to wrap up by Thursday at the latest, Dewani should know whether or not he will have to return to stand trial for his wife Anni’s murder in Khayelitsha on November 13.
In terms of extradition procedures in the UK, Mhaga said South African authorities had complied with all the legal requirements. Regional NPA spokesman Eric Ntabazalila said the South African authorities dealing with Dewani’s extradition had put their full trust in the UK justice system.
“We do not want to predetermine the outcome of the court case. We are not even thinking about what happens after (the extradition hearing),” he said.
A number of UK publications yesterday reported Dewani’s defence would argue that, if he was extradited, his life would be in danger in a South African prison, as conditions here were inhumane.
Dewani, currently at the Cygnet Hospital Kewstoke in Somerset, the second psychiatric facility he has been admitted to since an apparent suicide attempt in February, has, through his British spin doctor, Max Clifford, constantly denied any involvement in his wife’s murder.
But the State believes it has a watertight case against him.
To keep up to date with the case and see Dewani in court, Anni’s relatives travelled to the UK to be present at today’s proceedings. Yesterday, Anni’s father, Vinod Hindocha, said his family was struggling to think of anything other than the proceedings.
“We just pray we come to a closure and get the answers to what really happened to my Anni. We are not ourselves at all at the moment. The longer this goes on, the more torture we experience,” he said.
Anni’s family has been urging relatives and friends to sign an online petition asking the UK’s Secretary of State to grant Dewani’s extradition.
So far, at least 5 328 people have signed the petition. If Dewani is extradited, local authorities hope he will be in Cape Town by June 1 so that on that day he can appear in the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court with his co-accused and the alleged hitmen in the case, Mziwamadoda Qwabe and Xolile Mngeni.
But if Dewani is ordered to return to South Africa, he may choose to appeal this decision, which could turn into a protracted legal process.
According to the UK government’s Home Office website, South Africa was one of the countries that did not need prima facie evidence (evidence deemed sufficient to raise a presumption of fact) to support extradition requests.
Based on extradition information on the website, these were some of the possible steps Dewani’s extradition could entail:
- If a judge decided Dewani should be extradited to South Africa, the case would then be sent to the secretary of state to make the final decision.
- Dewani’s defence would then have a month to make representations to the secretary of state, who would have to make a decision on the extradition within two months from the day the case is sent to its office.
- If the secretary of state decided Dewani should indeed be extradited, he would be extradited within a month of this decision being made.
- But if Dewani’s legal team decided to appeal against the decision to extradite him, they would have two weeks to lodge this appeal in the UK’s High Court. - Cape Times