Cape Town - The National Prosecuting Authority said on Monday it respected the decision to acquit British businessman Shrien Dewani on charges of killing his wife Anni.
“When you take matters to court, we’re always alive to the fact that there are two possibilities: either there is conviction or there is acquittal,” NPA spokesman, Nathi Mncube, said outside the Western Cape High Court.
He said prosecution could not stop simply because of the possibility of acquittal.
The NPA’s responsibility was to take matters to court where it believed there was sufficient and credible evidence, he said.
Western Cape High Court Deputy Judge President Jeanette Traverso on Monday granted Dewani’s application for his discharge on the charge of the killing of his wife Anni in 2010.
“There is no evidence on which a reasonable man can convict the accused,” she said.
It was her opinion that the evidence presented fell far below the required threshold. She said it was regrettable that many unanswered questions remained about what happened the night Anni was killed, but she could not be swayed by public opinion.
“If any court allowed public opinion or emotion to influence the application of the law it would lead to anarchy,” she said.
The only possible reason to refuse Dewani’s application was in the hope of him implicating himself during his evidence, which Traverso said would be an injustice.
Dewani walked out of the dock and down the stairs to the holding cells without any expression on his face. His family burst into tears and people in the public gallery shouted for the State to appeal.
After a lengthy extradition process, Dewani went on trial in October for allegedly plotting with shuttle taxi driver Zola Tongo and others to kill his wife Anni while they were on honeymoon in Cape Town in November 2010.
He pleaded not guilty to charges including kidnapping, murder, and defeating the ends of justice. He claimed the couple was hijacked while Tongo drove them through Gugulethu on Saturday, November 13, 2010.
Sapa