Dewani extradition case ruling due

Honeymoon murder suspect Shrien Dewani finds out the result today of his latest legal bid to block his extradition to South Africa until he is fit to stand trial.

Dewani, from Bristol, is fighting removal from the UK to face proceedings over wife Anni’s death until he has recovered from mental health problems, including depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.

A panel of three judges, headed by the Lord Chief Justice Lord Thomas, will announce a decision in his case which follows a hearing at the High Court in London last year.

Those proceedings took place after an earlier decision that there were outstanding legal issues which needed to be decided.

Dewani’s lawyers have stressed at various hearings that he will be willing to defend himself at trial once he is fit to do so.

They say he is unfit to plead under English law and his “prognosis is not certain”.

Dewani is compulsorily detained in hospital under the Mental Health Act 1983 with his next annual review set for May.

Last July, chief magistrate Howard Riddle ruled at Westminster Magistrates’ Court that Dewani should be extradited and rejected his attempt to stay in the UK for further hospital treatment.

He said Dewani was not fit to plead or stand trial at present, but there was evidence that he would receive the care he needed in South Africa.

Judge Riddle originally gave the go-ahead to Dewani’s extradition in 2011 but had to reconsider the position after the High Court later allowed an appeal.

Clare Montgomery QC, for Dewani, told Lord Thomas, sitting with Mr Justice Ouseley and Mr Justice Blake: “He is presently unfit. He is likely to remain unfit for a period that cannot be foreseen with any accuracy.”

She said: “We suggest that there would be no damage done…if the court were to further adjourn this case.”

The High Court proceedings centred on two legal issues – the first relating to Dewani’s status as ”an accused person”, and the second concerning whether it would be ”unjust and oppressive” to extradite him ”regardless of the prognosis” of his mental condition.

The judges have been asked to decide whether a person who is unfit to plead is “an accused” for the purpose of the Extradition Act 2003 “if he is being extradited in circumstances where he may remain unfit to plead”.

They have also been asked to rule on whether it is “unjust or oppressive to extradite a person who is agreed at the time of the determination to be unfit, whatever the prognosis”.

During the hearing, Lord Thomas said that if Dewani’s legal team won on the first issue, then Dewani “has to be discharged”, but he “could be re-arrested subject to him remaining in this country when he becomes fit”.

In discussion with Ms Montgomery he said that if successful on the second issue, then “you have another adjournment, he remains where he is until better and then goes”.

Dewani is accused of ordering the killing of his new wife Anni, 28, who was shot as the couple travelled in a taxi on the outskirts of Cape Town in November 2010.

So far three men have been convicted over Mrs Dewani’s death.

South African Xolile Mngeni was convicted of premeditated murder for shooting her. Prosecutors claimed he was a hitman hired by Dewani to kill his wife, which Dewani has consistently denied.

Taxi driver Zola Tongo was jailed for 18 years after he admitted his part in the killing and another accomplice, Mziwamadoda Qwabe, also pleaded guilty to murder and was handed a 25-year prison sentence.

Dewani’s family have said that he remains committed to returning to South Africa ”when his health would permit a full trial and when appropriate protections are in place for his health and safety”.

Hugo Keith QC, for the Government of South Africa, urged the judges to dismiss the appeal.

Source Article from http://uk.news.yahoo.com/dewani-extradition-case-ruling-due-032712854.html

Dewani extradition case ruling due