Cape Town - The family of Swedish honeymooner Anni Hindocha say they will consult lawyers about instituting a civil suit against British businessman Shrien Dewani - who was acquitted of Anni's murder earlier today - in the United Kingdom.
“We know now that he was having gay sex with male prostitutes and declared himself bisexual on the first day of his trial. We would have preferred to have known about his sexuality before he married our precious Anni. She gave herself to him, mind, body and soul and she hoped to have been cherished and loved,
“But she would not have married him if she had known about his secret sex life with male prostitutes and the activities he engaged in.
“Neither would we have, as a family, condoned a union with a man who indulged himself in such a sordid manner,” Anni's uncle, Ashok Hindocha, said in a statement released shortly after the judgment.
Hindocha said the family will have to endure sleepless nights for the rest of their lives after the trial came to an abrupt end, leaving them with several unanswered questioned.
“We do not feel we have been presented with the whole story and the decision to end the trial without the (accused) offering a defence, means we, and the good people of South Africa, the UK and various parts of the world who have followed the case, will always live without ever knowing the complete events that led up to Anni’s death. We would have preferred that Shrien Dewani went into the witness box and told in his words what happened after he was accused of her murder.
Hindocha added that Anni's parents were stricken with grief.
“They will live forever with the warm and magical memories of Anni, but these memories will always be tinged with the pain of the fact that closure has not been afforded to them,” he said.
Deputy Judge President Jeanette Traverso acknowledged the family's pain, saying that she heard their pleas.
However, she said she has taken an oath of office to uphold the law and was obliged to follow the legal position.
Traverso was giving judgment in an application Dewani had lodged, in terms of section 174 of the Criminal Procedure Act for his discharge and acquittal.
It was his argument that the State's case was so weak that he did not have to provide an answer to the allegations against him.
And Judge Traverso agreed that the prosecution had put forward a weak case.
Even if Dewani testified and was a wholly unsatisfactory witness, the court would still be left with a weak State case, she added.
Dewani's eyes welled up as she read the last few words of her judgment and he quickly left the courtroom as soon as he was acquitted.
His parents, Prakash and Shila, sister Preyal and brother Preyen huddled together, tears streaming down their cheeks.
Dewani left the building unnoticed, before photographers and cameramen could see him.
His family was escorted out of the building through an exit used by staff and were protected by a ring of policeman.
They did not respond to requests for comment.
Dewani's acquittal brings to a close a four-year-long saga in which it was alleged that he had orchestrated Anni's murder while they were on honeymoon in Cape Town in November 2010.
IOL