Anni Dewani Hitman Xolile Mngeni Set For Release From Prison On Compassionate Grounds

The killer Anni Dewani who was murder on her honeymoon to South Africa, Xolile Mngeni  is set to be free.

Gunman Xolile killed Anni with a single shot as she sat in a taxi in Cape Town in November 2010 – he is now set to be released from custody in a ‘mercy’ move because 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 fought back tears as he 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 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 compiled by South Africa’s 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: ‘Basically, 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 before the 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?

Anni's husband Shrien Dewani is due to go on trial in October after a lengthy battle with South African detectives who allege he organised the attack

‘He showed no such mercy to Anni, a defenceless young woman. I do not want revenge against him. I just want justice.’

Mngeni’s trial was postponed several times after he was arrested for shooting Swedish-born Anni in the back of a taxi on the outskirts of Cape Town. 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, with the judge branding him ‘evil’.
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, Dewani’s battle against extradition ended and he was flown from Britain to Cape Town where has been on remand in a psychiatric hospital. He had fought the extradition on the basis that he was suffering post-traumatic stress.



Source: Mail Online