Cape Town - The hitman involved in the murder of Swedish honeymooner Anni Hindocha recently approached the Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP), requesting that the date on which he becomes eligible to be considered for parole be brought forward.
The DPP responded that it could not give any guarantees but that it would write to prison authorities once Mziwamadoda Qwabe had complied with an agreement to testify against Anni's widower, Shrien Dewani.
This emerged in the Western Cape High Court on Monday morning, during Dewani's murder trial.
Qwabe is serving a 25-year sentence and it was ordered that he could only be considered for release on parole after serving two thirds.
In the recent letter he wrote to the DPP, he requested that it be brought forward to half of his sentence.
Dewani is accused of hiring hitmen to kill Anni while they were on honeymoon in Cape Town in November 2010.
However, he denies that he ordered her killing, saying that she was killed during a hijacking.
His advocate spent Monday morning and Thursday afternoon, prodding Qwabe for answers, after suggesting that Anni had been kidnapped for ransom.
Dewani was ordered out of the car unharmed because he was the one who had the money to pay for the return of his wife, defence advocate Francois van Zyl SC suggested.
He put it to Qwabe that there was undisputed evidence before court that supported the defence's views.
Qwabe claims that his accomplice, Xolile Mngeni, fired the shot that killed Anni, while he was the one who drove the vehicle.
However, it was put to him that he was the gunmen after it emerged that an area on the left glove that Qwabe wore during the attack, tested positive for primer (gunshot) residue.
The results of the primer residue tests were only supplied to the defence in August this year - two years after Qwabe was jailed for the murder.
According to Van Zyl, the defence requested that the results be handed over.
By the time they received it, Mngeni - who refused to enter into a plea bargain with the State - had already been tried and convicted, after it was found that he was the one who fired the fatal shot.
Van Zyl also put it to Qwabe that embossed glove prints were found on the left rear door of the car and that marks were found on Anni's leg, which were consistent with being grabbed by someone's right hand.
Qwabe testified that he wore gloves throughout the incident, but denied even handling the fireram, saying that he simply drove the vehicle.
Van Zyl put it to him that the evidence suggested that Qwabe - not Mngeni - was the one who shot Anni.
However, he put it to him that the shot was fired by accident, during a struggle.
Qwabe, it was suggested, did so while leaning into the rear of the car from the left hand side and while pulling Anni by the leg with his right hand.
The trial continues.
IOL