Anni's uncle tests Shrien's window claim

Jan 15, 2011 11:04 PM | By ANTON FERREIRA

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Photograph by: ANDREW WINNING/REUTERS

Shrien has said two hijackers forced him out of the rear window of the Sharan.
Ashok Hindocha, who is of similar build to Shrien, said yesterday from Sweden that he had found it was not impossible to fit through the window, "but you have to fight to squeeze through".

Hindocha said he would attend the extradition proceedings against Dewani - who is accused of plotting Anni's murder - which begin in London on Thursday.

Dewani, said by friends in Bristol to be an emotional wreck, begins his legal battle with ammunition from an unlikely source - a senior South African judge.

In his latest report, Judge Deon van Zyl, the inspecting judge of prisons, makes a scathing attack on the 19 most overcrowded jails that could help Dewani's cause.

"The conditions under which inmates are detained are shockingly inhumane and do not remotely comply with the requirements set forth in the constitution," the judge said.
His language matches that of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights: "No one shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment."
The similarity of the language in the documents is unlikely to be missed by Dewani's high-powered legal team as it marshals arguments to reject South Africa's application to have him brought back to face trial for murder.

Anni was killed in November in an apparent hijack in Cape Town's Guguletu township just five days into the couple's honeymoon. Their taxi driver, Zola Tongo, made a plea-bargain confession in which he accused Dewani, 31, of asking him to arrange the murder.

Dewani, who returned to Bristol three days after his wife's death, has denied any involvement and hired leading UK spin doctor Max Clifford to defend his reputation.

A Hindu community leader in Bristol, Pankaj Pandya, this week described Dewani as tormented by the sense that the whole world was against him. "The guy is emotionally charged," said Pandya, who has known Dewani since he was a boy. "Everybody's accusing him of things. How would you feel? That avalanche of accusations coming at you - this kind of media trial..."

Pandya, treasurer of the Bristol Hindu Temple, dismissed the murder charge against Dewani as "C - R - A - P", but Tlali Tlali, spokesman for the Department of Justice, said investigators were building a "watertight" case against him.

http://www.timeslive.co.za/sundaytimes/article853316.ece/Annis-uncle-tests-Shriens-window-claim