ALBAN MURDER: ACCUSED'S RADICAL SA DRUG TREATMENT

Boyfriend underwent controversial treatment in SA, friend reveals

GUATEMALAN Diego Novella was desperate to beat his drug addiction and hold on to his American girlfriend, and was undergoing radical therapy in South Africa.

But he fell off the wagon just weeks before Gaby Alban, a 39year-old marketing executive, was found dead in the couple’s room at a luxury Cape Town hotel in July.

This week, one of Novella’s friends, a tour organiser, told of the troubled playboy’s rollercoaster relationship with drugs, his search for the meaning of life in the face of boundless wealth, and a fractured relationship with his “clean-living girlfriend”.

Alban’s body was found in a room at the Camps Bay Retreat boutique hotel on July 29. It is believed that she had been sexually abused. A white powder was also found in the room. Novella, 41, has been charged with murder in connection with her death.

He is being held in the hospital section at Pollsmoor Prison. On Monday, he was ordered to undergo a 30-day observation at Valkenberg psychiatric hospital.

He will appear in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court again on September 30.

Novella’s friend, who lives in Cape Town and did not want to be named, said they became close during the course of a tour, organised by him, that Novella went on. On the trip, Novella spoke openly about his battle with drugs and his desire to quit permanently. “He knew he had a problem with substance abuse and was pretty serious about changing his life around,” the friend said.

Soon after, Novella visited a rehab clinic in the Magaliesberg, where he completed a pretreatment detox before taking a controversial drug treatment called Ibogaine.

Ibogaine is a hallucinogenic compound that comes from the roots of a West African shrub and is used legally in some countries as a treatment for addiction, but is illegal in others.

“He had clearly done a lot of research on Ibogaine therapy,” Novella’s friend said. “I hooked up with him again in Cape Town. He was looking amazing and said he had a better understanding of himself and how he had used drugs to try to solve his emotional problems.”

Novella wanted to do a second round of therapy and “wanted Gaby to do it as well as she was suffering from an autoimmune disease he felt had a psychological cause”.

The two men stayed in contact and “he was being very careful about what he ate, he was doing yoga and he was waiting for Gaby”. But then, in mid-June, he moved into the Grand Daddy Hotel in the centre of Cape Town’s nightlife district, despite the friend warning against it.

“Everyone knows Long Street is a place you can get any street drug you want,” said the friend.

From there, things took a turn for the worse. “He was partying hard and sometimes going for three nights without sleeping properly.”

One night the friend and his wife met Novella for dinner. “He struggled to make eye contact. He had fallen off the wagon again and wasn’t feeling good about himself. The next day I suggested he go for round two with Ibogaine immediately rather than wait for Gaby.” Novella apparently went through the detox phase but did not take the Ibogaine because he was due to set off to Europe the next day to meet Alban. The plan was to attend a wedding then fly back to South Africa together.

“He was so excited about seeing her and was still very much in love with her — even though their relationship had faltered. I think that was because she was clean-living whereas he battled with drugs.”

The friend said the shock of Alban’s death had not worn off yet. “I am completely saddened by it. Whatever he did when he was partying had an adverse effect on him. He lacks selfdiscipline and perhaps always had a sense that with money in the background you can just bail yourself out of trouble.”

Novella’s lawyer, William Booth, said this week his client was still waiting for a bed at Valkenberg. “Drug addiction and treatment are not issues that I am in a position to discuss now, but I have called for a mental health evaluation because I believe there are certain mental health issues that need to be addressed.”

He would not confirm if he had been in touch with the tour organiser.

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