passionflower
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David Dadic @DavidDadic · 2h 2 hours ago
I'm starting to get the feeling that Shrien Dewani may be successful in a sect 174 discharge application ie released before taking the stand
174. Accused may be discharged at close of case for prosecution. If, at the close of the case for the prosecution at any trial, the court is of the opinion that there is no evidence that the accused committed the offence referred to in the charge or any offence of which he may be convicted on the charge, it may return a verdict of not guilty.
Thanks IB, I was interested in the sect 174, and it's no surprise. So the case will be wrapped up before December 1. At least, Anni's parents can rest assured that no stone was left unturned in seeking justice and the truth. JMO
If it is wrapped up, I am not too sure that Anni's family will be happy. I think they want to hear what SD has to say. IMO The likelihood is that the case will be thrown out because there seems to be no concrete evidence to convict SD and he may well be the fall guy for a bungled ransom abduction.
The PT obviously think the new evidence they are bringing before the court is important so we will have to wait and see what it is. Given they have had 4 years to get their facts sorted, this may well be another red herring.
Originally Posted by newone
Traverso: Surely you knew this before coming to trial. Why is there no report? The police have gone on TV, on Panorama about the state's case. I'm going to grant you the indulgence but I want to know, why only now.
Mopp: We've been trying to get an expert from the police, who is competent, to talk about primer residue & what happens when a shot is fired.
I am absolutely not a liberal handwringer, but will someone please correct me here if I am wrong..... Mngeni was convicted as the one that fired the shot that killed Anni, but we now have the state scurrying for an expert witness on gun residue and they have now admitted this crucial evidence was omitted at Mngeni's trial!! Mngeni gave evidence that there was only the 4 grand from SD's pocket as spoil, which him and Quabe split. He was the first to be arrested and (according to Panorama) there is evidence that he only saw the 2 grand from the 4 grand split with Quabe. It seems to me that he was stitched up by everyone. He took the rap for the ultimate shot and it would appear that Quabe didn't tell him about the 10k in the car, and no-one else did either. His co conspirators seem to have been eager to throw him under the bus, whilst hiding the main spoil from him.
Don't get me wrong, Mngeni is absolutely guilty, but it seems to me that this bunch were no strangers to this kind of arrangement, nor of making the most of situations for themselves, despite so called 'arrangements'. Mngeni was arrested first, seems to corroborate SD's story (initially before he denied everything) and didn't seem to want to touch the other's stories with a bargepole. Shame he's dead, he would have been an interesting witness here - but then, he'd have had absolutely no incentive to testify, would he?
No-one is ever going to convince me this bunch pulled it together enough to hatch a plot to implicate Dewani out of the blue. Absolutely no reason it could benefit them. They implicated him, because he was involved, in my opinion.
[130] I find that the accused together with the persons as mentioned in the evidence formed a common purpose to murder the deceased, Anni Dewani, after they had conspired to do so. I find that the accused had made himself available at a price upon payment of[B] R15 000,00[/B], to be shared between himself and Qwabe, to execute the deceased. In the process a plan was devised in which it would appear that the vehicle in which the deceased and her husband were passengers was hijacked. During this incident, the deceased was shot once through the neck by the accused, as a result of which she died. Thereafter she was robbed of her property as stated in the indictment.