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SWEDISH HONEYMOONER SLAYING

CRIME

Slain Swedish bride’s husband arrested

A British businessman has been arrested at the request of South African authorities on suspicion of conspiring to have his Swedish bride murdered while on honeymoon, police said Wednesday.

Slain Swedish bride's husband arrested

Shrien Dewani, 30, surrendered himself to authorities in Bristol, southwest England, late Tuesday and was detained by London police in connection with the killing of his wife in South Africa.

He is accused of hatching a plot to murder 28-year-old Anni Dewani, a native of Mariestad in central Sweden, who was killed after the car in which the pair was travelling was reportedly hijacked on the outskirts of Cape Town on November 13th.

“Officers from the Metropolitan Police Service’s Extradition Unit have… arrested Shrien Prakash Dewani, 30, on behalf of the South African authorities,” said a statement from the London force.

It noted the allegation against him: “On 13 November 2010, in Cape Town, South Africa, conspired with others to murder Anni Dewani.”

He was due to appear in a London court later Wednesday.

Shrien Dewani’s alleged involvement in the murder emerged in a South African court on Tuesday, marking a sensational twist in the killing of his young wife whose bullet-riddled body was found in an impoverished township neighbourhood.

He returned to Britain days after the incident in which he was unharmed and has denied involvement, but the court heard allegations he connived with a taxi driver to stage a robbery and have his wife shot dead.

Three men were originally charged with the murder but as part of a plea bargain the High Court in Cape Town heard one of the accused allege that the husband ordered the killing.

“The deceased was murdered at the instance of her husband,” Western Cape director of public prosecutions Rodney de Kock told judge John Hlophe in court, South African national news agency SAPA reported.

The claim that Dewani plotted the murder was made by Zola Tongo, the driver of the taxi in which the couple were travelling in near Cape Town.

Tongo was sentenced to 18 years in jail on Tuesday after pleading guilty to murder and aggravated robbery, as the victim’s father looked on and wept.

National Prosecuting Authority spokesman Eric Ntabazalila told AFP that Tongo had given evidence that he was approached by the Briton and promised 15,000 rand ($2,175) “to remove someone off the scene.”

“After some discussion with him I understood that he wanted someone, a woman, killed,” said Tongo in a sworn statement.

He enlisted two accomplices to conduct the murder, according to Ntabazalila.

Tongo’s plea bargain documents reveal that the hijacking was part of a plan devised together with Dewani to conceal the murder.

“Threatening me and Shrien Dewani with a firearm was a mere pretence of force….” he said.

The two other men accused of Dewani’s killing are due to face trial on February 25th.

Prior to the killing, the honeymooners had dined in a seaside restaurant in a town outside Cape Town and were on their way back to the city when Anni Dewani asked to see township nightlife, according to reports at the time.

But court documents released on Tuesday said this was part of a plan of subterfuge concocted by the victim’s husband and Tongo.

Tongo told the court he carefully went through the hijacking and murder details with Dewani, even taking him to a black market foreign exchange dealer in Cape Town to arrange payment and avoid a bank audit trail.

“The agreement was that after the hijacking of the vehicle, Shrien Dewani and I would be ejected from the vehicle unharmed… the deceased would be kidnapped and robbed, before she was murdered.”

Shrien Dewani’s family have lashed out at the claim of his involvement in the killing.

“These allegations are totally ludicrous and very hurtful to a young man who is grieving the loss of the woman he loved, his chosen life partner,” the family said in a statement.

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CRIME

Nordic justice ministers meet tech giants on gangs using apps to hire ‘child soldiers’

The justice ministers of Denmark, Sweden and Norway are to meet representatives of the tech giants Google, Meta, Snapchat and TikTok, to discuss how to stop their platforms being used by gang criminals in the region.

Nordic justice ministers meet tech giants on gangs using apps to hire 'child soldiers'

Denmark’s justice minister, Peter Hummelgaard, said in a press release that he hoped to use the meeting on Friday afternoon to discuss how to stop social media and messaging apps being used by gang criminals, who Danish police revealed earlier this year were using them to recruit so-called “child soldiers” to carry out gang killings.  

“We have seen many examples of how the gangs are using social media and encrypted messaging services to plan serious crimes and recruit very young people to do their dirty work,” Hummelgaard said. “My Nordic colleagues and I agree that a common front is needed to get a grip on this problem.”

As well as recruitment, lists have been found spreading on social media detailing the payments on offer for various criminal services.   

Hummelgaard said he would “insist that the tech giants live up to their responsibilities so that their platforms do not act as hotbeds for serious crimes” at the meeting, which will take place at a summit of Nordic justice ministers in Uppsala, Sweden.

In August, Hummelgaard held a meeting in Copenhagen with Sweden’s justice minister, Gunnar Strömmer, at which the two agreed to work harder to tackle cross-border organised crime, which has seen a series of Swedish youth arrested in Denmark after being recruited to carry out hits in the country. 

According to a press release from the Swedish justice ministry, the morning will be spent discussing how to combat the criminal economy and particularly organised crime in ports, with a press release from Finland’s justice ministry adding that the discussion would also touch on the “undue influence on judicial authorities” from organised crime groups. 

The day will end with a round table discussion with Ronald S Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress, on how anti-Semitism and hate crimes against Jews can be prevented and fought in the Nordic region. 

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