Johannesburg – A South African court sentenced three people to life in jail on Thursday for the 2018 murders of a British botanist couple kidnapped while collecting seeds in a protected forest.
Rachel and Rodney Saunders, aged 64 and 73, were kidnapped in the Ngoye Forest 150 kilometres (93 miles) north of the Indian Ocean city of Durban, prosecutors said. Their decomposing bodies were found days later in a river.
Sayefudeen 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 Saunders, who also had South African citizenship, were widely respected botanists and ran a seed store in Cape Town.
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Source: AFP
