A South African court trying a man for the murder of honeymooner Anni Dewani — allegedly on the orders of her new British husband — on Wednesday heard evidence from a witness who said he was asked to find a hitman for a foreigner.
The prosecution’s first witness told the court how he acted as a middle man after the couple’s driver, Zola Tongo, asked if he knew of a hired assassin for a foreigner who wanted a “lady to be killed.”
“He [Tongo] called me aside, he wanted to speak to me. I went to him and then he asked do I know anybody who is a hitman,” he told the first day of Xolile Mngeni’s murder trial.
“He said there was a gentleman who was ordering this murder to be done,” said the witness, who the court ruled should not be identified. “He said this gentleman is not from here.”
Mngeni denied charges of murder, kidnapping, robbery and illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition at the Cape High Court after being cleared as fit to stand trial last week despite a brain tumor.
Mngeni was named by a co-accused, who pleaded guilty last week to Dewani’s murder, as the gunman in the 2010 killing of the 28-year-old in a plea bargain that implicated her husband, Shrien Dewani.
The witness said that he had introduced Tongo, who had met the couple at the airport, by telephone to another man on the Friday before Anni Dewani’s death.
“I told him that there’s a gentleman called Zola that is looking for a hitman,” he said.
He was in touch with both men on the Saturday and passed on information using his work phone at a local hotel, including that the trio were leaving a restaurant and were on the way to a township where their car was hijacked.
The man visited his home on the Sunday morning that Anni Dewani’s body was discovered in the abandoned car on Nov. 14.
He told him that it was “all over the news,” and to tell the driver, whose phone was off, that he had received less money than what was promised to him.
“He said to me I must not ask too many questions, what needed to be done is done,” he told the court, saying he understood this to mean that “the murder has been committed.”
Prosecutors are still hoping to put Shrien Dewani in the dock in Cape Town after his extradition process was temporarily halted earlier this year.
Britain approved Shrien Dewani’s extradition, but the London High Court shelved the process in March, citing health grounds.
Shrien Dewani has denied any involvement in the contract killing.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number