Dewani murder trial thrown out of court

http://news.sky.com/story/1387897/dewani-walks-free-as-murder-trial-thrown-out

Dewani Walks Free As Murder Trial Thrown Out
11:05, UK, Monday 08 December 2014


The case of Shrien Dewani, who was accused of plotting to murder his wife Anni on their honeymoon, has been dismissed by a judge.

Judge Jeanette Traverso said prosecution arguments had "fallen far below" the level needed to a secure conviction, paving the way for Mr Dewani's acquittal.

Mr Dewani denied arranging the murder, and said his 28-year-old bride was killed during a botched carjacking in Cape Town in November 2010.

The Hindocha family claimed after the ruling that the South African justice system has failed them.

Mr Dewani, who is now free to return to the UK, breathed a large sigh of relief as the judge cleared him.

The state's key witness, cab driver Zola Tongo said Mr Dewani paid him to hire two men to carry out the murder.

Giving her ruling on an application by Mr Dewani's defence lawyer Francos van Zyl to dismiss the case, Judge Traverso said the claims of Tongo about the killing were "riddled with contradictions" and "highly debatable".

She added that the only reason not to grant the application would be in the hope that Mr Dewani would implicate himself during the course of his testimony.

However, to do so would be a "manifest misdirection", Judge Traverso said.

Judge Traverso declared that the evidence from the three men was "so improbable, with so many mistakes, lies and inconsistencies you cannot see where the lies ended and the truth begins".

More follows...

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Be ready for shrieks and howls of rage from the forkers; they are all convinced Dewani DID IT because their digestive systems said so.

They will fail to grasp that Dewani may be a grossly unlikeable, two-faced, bisexual, but civilised societies need something called EVIDENCE against people accused of heinous crimes.

The lynch mobbers are working themselves into a frenzy, predictably:


Re: Shrien Dewani murder case thrown out by South African judge
Post  tiny Today at 12:48 pm

MONEY,MONEY MONEY,played a big roll in this,disgusting.

WTF has money got to do with it? The prosecution has had YEARS to assemble something resembling a coherent case, and failed dismally. I won't pretend for one minute that Dewani is greatly likeable, and he seems to have the morals of an alley cat, but that is a long way from hiring hitmen to dispose of his new bride.

The haters and lynchmobbers really do need to try to grasp that prosecutors do lie, they do grandstand and play to the ignorant mob for their own advancement in high profile cases.

It's not as if crimes like this are unusual in South Africa; they might like to consider that Anni's killers are already in jail - or dead - and there never was any complicated  plot. It was just a stupid, squalid, pointless murder, not unlike Meredith Kercher's, with the emotions of a grieving family being exploited for personal advancement.

I can't see why they charged him in the first place with the evidence available.

The prosecutor was only looking at advancing his own career, mayhap? Grandstanding prosecutors are an absolute curse in these high-profile cases.

http://www.stopthemyths.info/viewtopic.php?f=148&t=7323


Just like Meredith's family.

Real killers got off lightly. State expended much time, money and lost prestige in trying to prove a conspiracy alleged by guilty people trying to lighten their own punishment.

Precisely.

The people shrieking about Justice for Anni, or Justice for Meredith would be better employed campaigning for REAL justice.

Which would be longer sentences for self-confessed killers, instead of reduced sentences for helping the prosecution concoct bizarre, non-existent, plots.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-29914835

That's a pretty good dissection of the whole mess. Incidentally, I think praise is due to the South African justice system, for not being intimidated by the howling mob, in either this or the Pistorious case.