The trio who brutally murdered a British couple and threw their bodies to crocodiles have been jailed for life in South Africa.Renowned botanists Rachel and Rodney Saunders, aged 63 and 74, had been searching for rare seeds in the Ngoye Forest in KwaZulu-Natal when they were kidnapped, prosecutors said.Their decomposing bodies were found days later in a river.Sayefundeen Aslam Del Vecchio, 46, his wife Fatima Patel, 36, and Malawian national Musa Jackson, 43, were convicted of the murders last month.They were also found guilty of stealing the couple's vehicle, camping equipment and a credit card which was used to make purchases totalling more than 700,000 rand ($43,000).A Durban court sentenced them to two terms of life imprisonment with concurrent jail time for kidnapping, robbery and theft, the prosecuting authority said in a statement.Del Vecchio and Patel were reportedly linked to the Islamic State at the time of the crime, with police finding IS literature and a flag during a search of their residence.Dutch media reported in 2018 that a suspected Dutch jihadist was believed to have 'tried to buy bitcoins' using Rachel Saunders' credit card details.The couple, who also had South African citizenship, were widely respected botanists and ran a seed store in Cape Town. Rachel and Rodney Saunders posed for a photo with Nick Bailey, the host of Gardeners' World The couple had been searching for rare seeds in a forest in KwaZulu-Natal province when they disappeared, shortly after being filmed by the BBC for the Gardeners' World programme The devoted couple, who were married for over 30 years and lived in Cape Town, met a horrific end while setting up camp beside a forest dam in a national park eight years agoThey were filmed by the BBC for the Gardeners’ World programme shortly before they vanished.The pair posed for a selfie with the show's host, Nick Bailey, in the Drakensberg Mountains - marking one of the last photos of them alive before they were ambushed and beaten to death. The devoted couple, who were married for over 30 years and lived in Cape Town, met a horrific end while setting up camp beside a forest dam in a national park eight years ago. On June 9, three suspects linked to ISIS were found guilty of kidnapping, robbing and murdering the botanists, who both held dual South African and British citizenship.The court heard how they were viciously tortured for Rachel's gold credit card PIN number and bank account details before being hacked, stabbed and battered to death.They were then disposed of after being cocooned in their sleeping bags and thrown off the Tugela River Bridge in the Ngoye Forest National Park to Nile crocodiles.Just 48 hours earlier the wildlife experts were being interviewed by BBC presenter Bailey for a Gardeners' World special in the remote mountains.Shortly after the BBC2 wildlife documentary team and the horticultural experts parted company, the pair were attacked after parking their 4x4 to prepare to pitch camp.Durban High Court heard how gang ringleader and Muslim convert Sayefundeen Del Vecchio, 44, had identified them to his wife and lodger by phone as a 'good hunt'.He later pounced and forced them to reveal their bank details and after killing them texted wife Fatima Patel and their lodger Musa Jackson, to say the 'prey are in hellfire'.Italian born Del Vecchio told wife Patel, the daughter of a Muslim cleric, and Malawian lodger and Muslim convert Jackson to meet him in the Saunders's stolen Toyota Land Cruiser. The Toyota Landcruiser 4 x 4 in which Rod and Rachel Saunders were travelling in the Drakensberg Mountain in North East South Africa Murdered British botanists Rod and Rachel Saunders on one of their many expeditions into the wilds of the South African mountains to gather seeds for their global mail order gardening company in Cape TownDurban High Court heard how by then, Rod and Rachel were dead in the back of it.Post mortems revealed that Rachel had been hacked a number of times to the back of her skull with a machete-like heavy blade and stabbed repeatedly in the upper back.She had also been brutally battered with a heavy blunt instrument that was believed to be the same murder weapon responsible for caving in the skull of husband Rod.Both victims were then wrapped in their sleeping bags and thrown in the back of their Toyota Land Cruiser 4 x 4 and driven to rendezvous with the wife and lodger in the forest.They drove to the Tugela River Bridge and the trio tossed the victims in their blood soaked sleeping bags to the maneaters below, but their savaged bodies were found washed up.Their remains were in such a terrible state due to the injuries they suffered in the violent attack and from predation from wild animals and decomposition that they were unrecognisable.It took two pathologists using DNA and a dental expert to be able to finally identify them.Officers were already searching for the much-loved pair unaware they had met such a grisly fate after work colleagues had alerted them when the pair did not keep regular check ins. Following the trail of credit card spending finally led them to the gang who were found to be already on a terrorist warning list and the Saunders phones were found at their home.The elite South African police squad the Hawks also found their jewellery and personal belongings and stolen camping equipment and laptops and finally the stolen Toyota.Inside the 4 x 4 they found heavy blood stains which were linked to Rod and Rachel.The court heard the couple who ran Summerhill Seeds in Cape Town regularly drove up into the wilds of South Africa in the remote north east to find seeds from rare gladioli flowers.They collected them and sold them world wide by mail-order from their garden centre company.