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South Africa court to decide Shrien Dewani's fate on December 8

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The fate of Shrien Dewani, the British-Indian millionaire accused of murdering his Indo-Swedish bride during their honeymoon in 2010, is expected to be decided on Monday by a South African court in Cape Town.

Judge Jeanette Traverso will tomorow decide whether to throw out the high-profile trial of Dewani even before he has started his defence against accusation that he plotted to kill his 28-year-old wife Anni.

Traverso has to decide if the prosecution case she has heard against the 34-year-old businessman is so weak at this stage that she can see no reasonable prospect she might find him guilty once she has also heard his defence.

Prosecutors in the six-week-long trial said Dewani was a closet homosexual, and "needed to find a way out" of his marriage. He admitted at the start of the trial that he is bisexual and visited male bondage prostitutes. But he also insisted that he loved his new wife Anni and had no hand in what happened.

Traverso, the second most senior in the province, has made no secret of her dismay at the prosecution case. She has rejected evidence about Dewani's sexuality as "irrelevant" and repeatedly lambasted the prosecutors leading it, Telegraph reported.

Both Dewani's lawyers and the policemen who investigated his wife's death believe the fact the judge took more than a week to weigh her decision means she is minded to overturn the high-profile trial, rather than taking the easier option of hearing the defence's side before returning a verdict.

"If they are right, Dewani could be on his way back to Britain as early as Monday. His family have been in court throughout despite some unpalatable evidence about his double life," the report said.

Anni's family has asked the court to force her British-Indian millionaire husband to testify on charges that he had her killed and come out with the "full story". Shrien faces life if found guilty of arranging to have his wife Anni murdered, who died in Cape Town after an apparent carjacking gone wrong.

He is accused of hiring three men -- taxi driver Zola Tongo, Mziwamadoda Qwabe and Xolile Mngeni -- to kill Anni. Mngeni was sentenced to life in prison for the murder but died in jail. Qwabe was sentenced to 25 years. Tongo was sentenced to 18 years following a plea bargain deal.

Shrien lost a four-year legal battle in the UK to avoid extradition to South Africa, and was sent in April to stand trial.

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