The family of slain honeymoon bride Anni Dewani on Sunday night said the controversial decision to delay her husband’s extradition is a slap in the face for South Africa.
Murder accused Shrien Dewani will not be facing charges for Anni’s murder any time soon after the British High Court ruled that he is not mentally fit to stand trial.
But in an exclusive interview with the Daily Voice, Anni’s uncle Ashok Hindocha says the court’s decision showed a lack of respect towards our doctors and healthcare system.
“I believe that South African doctors are capable of helping him recover,” Ashok says.
“Let the South African doctors take care of him. They have proven that they have the facilities to treat all sorts of illnesses.
“It’s time for South Africa to show some muscle.”
On Friday, the High Court temporarily postponed Dewani’s extradition to South Africa on the grounds that his mental health problems would worsen.
Two judges Sir John Thomas, head of the Queen’s Bench Division of the High Court of Justice, along with Justice Duncan Ouseley, ruled it would be “unjust and oppressive” to extradite Dewani, 32, until he was better.
But Anni’s grieving uncle claims the court’s decision is disrespectful of healthcare facilities here.
“That is how I feel,” he tells the Daily Voice.
“Why treat him in England? South Africa has promised everything in the court already so why delay it?
“What is the problem?
“Would they have made the same decision if it was not South Africa – or some European country – that was requesting his extradition?
“The court ruled that he will have to go to South Africa to face the charges against him.
“I am very disappointed.
“I was hoping that he would be extradited soon and had hoped that his health would be taken care of in South Africa.”
Ashok says the verdict was a very difficult pill for Anni’s family to swallow.
“This verdict on Friday, it has been very hard on us and to me it was unexpected,” he adds.
“I do respect the judgement, but I feel that it was not fair because they haven’t considered our family.
“We can’t start to mourn properly until all of this is over.”
Anni was brutally shot dead on November 13, 2010, just days after arriving in Cape Town on honeymoon.
Prosecuting authorities want Dewani extradited to Cape Town to face charges of murder, conspiracy to murder, robbery, kidnapping as well as interfering with the course of justice for his alleged role in her brutal murder.
Last year his lawyers launched an appeal against his extradition.
They argued that his mental condition put him at greater risk of committing suicide.
And they claimed his basic rights would be violated in a South African prison where he was likely to be assaulted and sexually violated.
On Friday, the court dismissed concerns that Dewani would be raped or beaten up by fellow prison inmates.
In its judgement, the court did find there are risks of violence and rape to a prisoner held in a communal cell.
But it said this did not apply to Dewani because “the South African Government has given clear undertakings that [Dewani] would be held in a single cell”.
However, the court expressed concern that extraditing him now would “worsen his condition and make it more difficult to get him into a position where he was fit to plead”.
The judgement stated: “Balancing his unfitness to plead, the risk of a deterioration in [Dewani’s] condition, the increased prospects of a speedier recovery if he remains here and… the risk of suicide… we consider that on the evidence… it would be unjust and oppressive to order his extradition.”
But the court added that it was “in the interests of justice that [Dewani] be tried in South Africa as soon as he is fit” for trial.
*This article was published in the Daily Voice