*The family of slain honeymoon bride Anni Hindocha have begun trickling into the Belmarsh Magistrates Court on Wednesday in anticipation of the extradition judgement of murder accused Shrien Dewani.
London -Honeymoon murder accused Shrien Dewani will learn in the Belmarsh Magistrate’s Court in London on Wednesday whether or not he will be extradited to South Africa amid yet another lurid allegation about his sex life.
The British press has in recent days reported that Dewani broke off his engagement to his first fiancée, Rani Kansagra, after confessing to her that he was impotent.
Dewani met Rani at a party in 2008 and later apparently told her he could not have sex with her.
This is not the first sex scandal to have engulfed the British businessman since he was named a suspect in connection with the murder of his wife, Anni Hindocha. She was shot and killed in Gugulethu.
The Belmarsh Magistrate’s Court has heard South African police will put a German male escort on the witness stand to testify that Dewani paid him for sex.
He is also alleged to have told the male escort that he “wanted a way out of his marriage”.
The British press has also reported that Dewani was a regular at London’s gay fetish bars.
District court chief magistrate Howard Riddle is due to hand down judgment on Wednesday on whether or not Dewani should be extradited to South Africa to face murder charges. If he finds Dewani should be extradited the decision would still need to be ratified by the UK home secretary.
However, legal observers say irrespective of the decision either side may appeal, which could drag out the case for months, even years.
The South African government wants Dewani to stand trial alongside the two alleged hit men, Mziwamadoda Qwabe and Xolile Mngeni, who are in police custody.
Taxi driver Zola Tongo, who says Dewani paid him R15 000 to organise the hit on his wife, has been sentenced, under a plea agreement with the State, to 18 years for his part in the crime.
Dewani denies murdering his wife but is fighting the extradition attempt on the basis that he is unlikely to get a fair trial in South Africa and that prison conditions are harsh and inhumane.
His lawyer, Clare Montgomery QC, has argued that jailing Dewani in a South African prison would be a violation of his human rights.
She has throughout the extradition hearing put the South African prison system on trial, using a UN Aids report on prison conditions as well as the 2005 Jali Commission findings as the basis of her argument.
Both reports paint a grim picture of life inside South African prisons.
Montgomery has argued that Dewani, being “light skinned”, “good looking” and perceived as homosexual because of various press reports, would make him easy prey to hardened inmates who would rape him and infect him with Aids.
The court has also been told that Dewani is suffering from severe depression and post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which Montgomery said had rendered him incapable of pleading to any charges in South Africa.
Dewani is being held at Fromeside Mental Clinic in Bristol under the British Mental Health Act. Montgomery argued that extraditing a mentally fragile person would be “inhumane and oppressive”.
The South African government has, however, assured the court that Dewani would be well looked after if extradited. If sent to a prison, he is likely to be kept in a hospital wing, in a single cell. Another option was for him to be treated at Valkenberg Psychiatric Hospital in Cape Town. - Pretoria News