SA court overturns murder conviction of ‘black widow’

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SA court overturns murder conviction of ‘black widow’

5:18 CAT | 30 Sep 2017

EWN / Thandi Maqubela had been sentenced to 18 years in jail

The highest court in South Africa has overturned the murder conviction of Thandi Maqubela – the so-called ‘black widow’.

Ms Maqubela was sentenced to 18 years in prison by the Western Cape High Court for killing her estranged husband judge Patrick Maqubela.

He was found dead in an apartment in 2009.

State prosecutors had however failed to definitively prove to the court that Mr Maqubela had died from being suffocated.

Ms Maqubela, 62, who had graced news headlines in colourful headscarves and designer sunglasses throughout the trial, has always denied that she killed her husband.

In her evidence she said her husband may have died of natural causes.

In a ruling on Friday the appeals court said that based on medical facts presented, the trial court had been wrong to rule that the cause of death was not conclusive that “an unlawful killing wasn’t the only reasonable inference that could be drawn”.

At the time she was also found guilty of falsifying her late husband’s signature on his will, nine months after his death, and committing fraud by possibly benefiting from it.

She was sentenced to 3 years for these charges and they still stand.

Source: BBC