Shrien’s family tell of health woes

Anni Dewani with her husband Shrien. Photo: Facebook

Anni Dewani with her husband Shrien. Photo: Facebook

Published Feb 13, 2013

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London - Shrien Dewani, wanted in South Africa over his bride's horrific murder during their honeymoon, has been hospitalised after his health “seriously deteriorated”, his family said on Wednesday.

Dewani, who denies ordering the murder of his 28-year-old wife Anni, has been receiving treatment from a psychiatric clinic but has now been admitted to a different hospital after suffering chest pains, his family said.

A British court has delayed the 32-year-old businessman's extradition until at least July on the grounds that he is suffering from severe depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Dewani's family said tests suggested that he had reacted badly to his medication.

“Shrien's health has seriously deteriorated. He was admitted to hospital last weekend suffering from severe chest pains,” the family said in a statement.

“He also has a raised creatine kinase level, indicative of another poor reaction to the medication he is being prescribed to improve his mental health.”

Anni Dewani, a Swede of Indian extraction, was gunned down in Gugulethu township outside Cape Town in November 2010 when the couple's taxi was hijacked.

A South African man, Xolile Mngeni, was jailed for life for the murder in December. Two other local men jailed over the killing allege Shrien Dewani ordered the hit.

At a court hearing in London in December, Dewani's lawyers said he was now a “husk” of a man due to his increasingly debilitating mental illness.

He suffers flashbacks of the night his bride was killed and is afraid to go outside or travel by car, Dewani's lawyer Clare Montgomery said. - Sapa-AFP

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