After nearly a year of boycotting court proceedings, two of the convicted killers of British couple, Rodney Charles Saunders and Rachel May Saunders, were forced to return to court and attend their sentencing proceedings.
The couple convicted of the brutal murders of British botanists, Rodney Saunders and Dr Rachel Saunders, had little choice but to return to the dock at the Durban High Court on Friday after boycotting court proceedings for nearly a year.
Bibi Fatima Patel and her husband, Sayefudeen Aslam Del Vecchio, had repeatedly refused to attend proceedings while their co-accused, a Malawian national, Mussa Ahmad Jackson, attended.
The trio was convicted earlier this month of murdering the renowned botanists in February 2018 and dumping their bodies in a river. The remains were later discovered near the Tugela River in an advanced state of decomposition, with some body parts having been consumed by animals.
The accused were also convicted of robbing the couple and using their bank cards to purchase goods worth more than R700,000.
