Three Get Life Imprisonment for Killing British Botanists

A South African court has sentenced three people to life imprisonment on Thursday for the murder of a British botanist couple.

Rachel and Rodney Saunders were kidnapped in the Ngoye Forest, 150 kilometres (93 miles) north of the Indian Ocean city of Durban, in 2018 and their decomposing bodies were found days later in a river, prosecutors said.

Sayefudeen Aslam Del Vecchio and his wife, Fatima Patel and Malawian national Musa Jackson 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).

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Also, a Durban court sentenced the three to two life terms in prison, with additional jail sentences for the other offences to run concurrently.

According to AFP, investigators had previously linked Del Vecchio and Patel to the Islamic State after police reportedly found IS literature and a flag during a search of their home.

Dutch media also reported in 2018 that a suspected Dutch terrorist tried to use Rachel Saunders’ stolen credit card details to buy Bitcoin.

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