The High Court of Cape Town was visibly moved when they saw the police footage of Anni Dewani, late wife of millionaire Shrien Dewani, lying dead in the backseat of a discarded vehicle. The 28 year-old engineer and part-time model was still wearing her black cocktail dress and high evening heels which were smattered with blood. This was a graphic enunciation that the long-awaited trial of slippery businessman Shrien Dewani had finally begun. It has been a drawn-out extradition process to get Shrien, accused of organising the murder of his wife, to come under judicial scrutiny. He has claimed that he was too mentally unhealthy to testify due to depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.
With Cape Town's second most senior judge Jeanette Traverso presiding over the trial, Dewani has now taken his seat in the courtroom a full four years after his wife's shooting. Before this, three South African nationals had already been convicted for their part in the murder including taxi driver Zola Tongo with whom Dewani was said to be quite familiar before the incident. The court has already heard many revealing details including the couple's turbulent relationship, the fact that Shrien was bisexual- he had hired a German male escort- and his lavish spending spree, £200,000 for their wedding in Mumbai, to keep his super-model partner.
Anni was shot dead when the couple were honeymooning in the scenic city of Cape Town. Shrien alleges that their vehicle was hijacked by a man who held them at gunpoint but later threw him from the car and drove away with Anni. Explaining to the court how he has been coping since, he said sombrely: 'my whole world has come crashing down.' The prosecution is expected to argue that the Bristol-born businessman plotted to have his wife murdered to escape a marriage he was pressured into so that he would be free to embrace his fluid sexuality: 'my sexual interactions with males were mostly physical experiences or email chats with people I met online or in clubs', he said in an anticipated defence, but 'my sexual interactions with females were usually during the course of a relationship which consisted of other activities and emotional attachment.'
Anni's family, who had to leave the courtroom when they saw the morbid police video have appealed to Dewani to 'tell the truth' because 'it has been a period of torture.' Anni's father Vinod Hindocha has stated 'now that I am back here, all I ask for is the full story and justice.' The three convicted South African men are expected to testify against Shrien. Anni's cousin Sneha Hindocha may also be called by the state. She reportedly told police of the couple's troubled relationship before their wedding. The next hearing will take place on Wednesday 8th October as the story continues to unravel.
