Anni killer ‘with months to live’ to go free
THE killer of honeymoon bride Anni Dewani is set to be freed as her husband awaits trial over his alleged involvement in the murder.
Gunman Xolile Mngeni killed Anni with a single shot as she sat in a taxi in Cape Town in November 2010 – but now he is set to be released from custody in a ‘mercy’ move as he is dying of cancer.
Anni’s husband Shrien, a millionaire businessman from Bristol, is due to go on trial in October after a lengthy battle by South African detectives to charge him with murder. It is alleged he organised the attack.
The move to free Mngeni has angered Anni’s family. Last night, her father, Vinod Hindocha, said: ‘The South Africans should not be thinking about Mngeni right now. They should be concentrating on bringing Shrien to trial.’
Mngeni, 25, is critically ill in a Cape Town hospital – and in a compassionate move similar to that which freed Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi, the South African government has now accepted that he has ‘only months to live’.
The recommendation that he be released was published in a secret report by the correctional supervision and parole board.
Official sources said a team of 11 doctors had assessed Mngeni’s condition and concluded that his time was running out.
One said: ‘The doctors say he is going to die soon and it should be as a free man. They don’t see the point of him dying in a cell.’
South Africa’s Justice Department has been asked to seek ministerial approval before Mngeni is released, probably within a few weeks.
Mr Hindocha, 64, would not say if he had been formally informed about Mngeni’s imminent release or whether he would be objecting. But he added: ‘It took two years to get this individual to court and during that time he received the best care doctors could give him.
‘He received a fair trial and was found guilty and given a life sentence. ‘Why should he be freed? He showed no such mercy to Anni. I do not want revenge against him. I just want justice.’
Mngeni’s trial was postponed several times. Said to be suffering a brain tumour, he vomited blood and keeled over during one hearing, forcing the judge to adjourn proceedings. But in December 2012, he was given a life sentence.
Two other men, Zola Tongo and Mziwamadoda Qwabe, are serving lengthy prison sentences for their part in the murder.
Tongo alleged he was approached by Shrien Dewani and claimed he offered him about £1,340 to organise the killing and make it look like a carjacking.
Dewani, 34, denies the allegations. In April, his battle against extradition ended and he was flown from Britain to Cape Town.