Killers of British couple in South Africa sentenced to life
Three people have been sentenced to life in prison by a South African court for the kidnapping, robbing and murder of a British couple in February 2018.
Rachel Saunders, 64, and her husband Rodney, 73, were taken while walking in the Ngoye Forest, 150km north of Durban. The botanists were collecting indigenous plants when they vanished. Their bodies were found days later in the Tugela River, with the male victim discovered first by fishermen and the female body identified in June.
The trio — Saffydeen Aslam del Vecchio, 46, his wife Fatima Patel, 35, and Malawian national Ahmad Mussa — were convicted last month. Each received two life terms from the KwaZulu-Natal division of the Durban High Court, together with 15 years for robbery with aggravating circumstances and four years for theft. Del Vecchio also faced a five‑year sentence for unrelated property damage.
The sentences will run concurrently. The accused were also found guilty of draining about 734,000 rand (£42,000) from the Saunders’ bank accounts and using the stolen card data for purchases near Durban. The case has drawn attention to security risks for foreign researchers traveling in remote parts of South Africa.
Patel had been arrested in an anti‑terrorism raid near Johannesburg in 2016, though no charges were filed. She and del Vecchio were alleged to have displayed an Islamic State flag in the reserve where the couple disappeared.
Rachel and Rodney possessed dual South African and British passports and ran a seed‑harvesting business in Cape Town. They were travelling with research equipment and camping gear when they were taken.
Authorities seized the accused’s property on 15 February 2018, finding the couple’s belongings. Musa was arrested a few weeks later.
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For further details, see the South African Police Service statement on their Facebook page: statement.
