Shrien Dewani walks free

In a stunning development, the court case against murder accused Shrien Dewani has been thrown out.

Judge Jeanette Traverso dismissed the case due to lack of evidence on Monday in the Western Cape High Court.

The British millionaire businessman had been accused of arranging to have his new wife Anni Dewani murdered in 2010 in Cape Town. The state argued that his motive was that he was a closeted gay man who wanted to get out of the marriage.

Dewani told the court in a statement at the start of the trial that he is bisexual and secretly paid for sex with S&M rent boys before the marriage.

Judge Traverso then refused to allow further testimony about Dewani’s sexuality and dismissed a London-based rent boy as a witness. She insisted that Dewani’s sexuality alone could not prove that he murdered his wife.

Dewani’s lawyers applied for the case to be dismissed, arguing that the evidence was weak and that the star witness, taxi driver and one of Anni’s convicted killers, Zola Tongo, had been contradictory and unreliable during his testimony.

Judge Traverso agreed that the evidence was not compelling and said that it would be a waste of taxpayers’ money to continue the trial with little chance of conviction.

Last week, Anni’s parents announced that they will sue Dewani because he lied about his sexuality, regardless of the outcome of the trial.

“If I knew Shrien was gay or bisexual I would never have allowed Anni to get married. It was a false wedding because of who he really was,” Anni’s mother said in a video interview.