Psychiatrist testifies in Dewani hearing

 A psychiatrist who interviewed honeymoon murder-accused Shrien Dewani last year testified in a London court on Tuesday.

 

The British Press Association reported that Dr Ian Cumming told the Westminster Magistrate's Court that Dewani told him during the interview that he wanted to fight the charges against him.

 

However, he said the 33-year-old would not suddenly volunteer to go to South Africa.

 

"I think that sometimes pushing patients on towards difficult things may be actually acting in their interests. It could well be that in six months or a year's time we have exactly the same position," said Cumming.

 

"There's something to be said for getting on with it. Mr Dewani is not going to wake up one day and suddenly say 'I'm ready to do this'. I just don't think that's going to happen. I think he has got to be edged towards it, and I think the clinicians have a responsibility in that."

 

Cumming went through a series of his reports about Dewani.

 

These included details of an interview where Dewani described the day his wife Anni was shot.

 

He said the attackers "got really nasty" and he recounted knocking on Shack doors to raise the alarm.

 

Cumming told the court that during a four-hour interview with Dewani in 2012, the businessman became tearful when he spoke about Anni and the topic was "emotionally charged".

 

However, Cumming was able to get "adequate information" from Dewani about what had happened that day and in the run-up to the murder.

 

According to Dewani, his wife was shot when a minibus taxi the couple was in was hijacked in the Gugulethu, Cape Town, in November 2010.

 

Dewani and driver Zola Tongo were ejected from the car before Anni Dewani was driven away and killed. She was found dead in the back of the abandoned vehicle with a bullet wound to her neck.

 

Dewani is accused of orchestrating the death. He faces extradition to South Africa to stand trial for her murder, in which he denies any involvement.

 

Last year, South African Xolile Mngeni was convicted of premeditated murder for shooting Anni Dewani.

 

Prosecutors claimed Shrien Dewani hired him to kill his new wife, something Dewani has consistently denied.

 

Tongo was jailed for 18 years after he admitted his part in the crime. Another accomplice, Mziwamadoda Qwabe, also pleaded guilty to charges related to the murder and was given a 25-year prison sentence.

 

Members of both Shrien and Anni Dewani's families were in court again on Tuesday for the second day of a five-day extradition hearing. Dewani has been excused from attending.

 

The hearing was adjourned to Wednesday.

 

-Sapa