On the eve of court's verdict on Shrien Dewani, the British-Indian millionaire accused of murdering his Indo-Swedish bride Anni Dewani, the family of victim has met with relatives of Reeva Steeenkamp, who was killed by her boyfriend paralympian Oscar Pistorius.
Reeva's parents have joined the growing campaign to have Shrien take the witness stand amid concerns that he may walk free tomorrow after battling extradition from his native Britain for three years before coming to South Africa to stand trial.
Judge Jeanette Traverso will decide whether to throw out the high-profile trial of Shrien even before he has started his defence against accusation that he plotted to kill his 28-year-old wife Anni.
Anni's father Vinod Hindocha confirmed that he had spoken by phone to Barry Steenkamp, Reeva's father, to discuss the similarities in their cases.
Hindocha said Steenkamp had pledged his family's support for Anni's family.
"Only (Steenkamp) and I as fathers can properly understand the pain of losing a daughter to bullets and then experience very difficult and high profile cases," he told the Daily Star.
Earlier in the week, Anni's brother Anish made an impassioned plea for Shrien to tell the truth in court.
"It would be disgraceful if Shrien is allowed out of South Africa without going through a full trial and telling us what happened. We need to hear his story so we can receive closure and try and move on with our lives," Anish said.
Anni was killed by a single bullet fired in what was allegedly a fake hijacking incident in which Shrien was unhurt while they were on honeymoon in Cape Town.
Pistorius shot his girlfriend through the toilet door at his residence, claiming he had mistaken her for an intruder.
Sources at the institution where Shrien is being held claimed that he was in a jovial mood, confident that he would be returning home this week.
"He has already cleaned up his room and packed his things," a well-placed source said.
But the legal fraternity in South Africa remained divided on Traverso's approach during the trial, some claiming that she had shown bias in favour of Dewani by refusing to allow testimony about his own admission that he was bi-sexual.
The defence had wanted to bring in a male prostitute from England to testify of his relationship with Dewani to prove that he had a motive to have Anni killed.
Others said Traverso would be right in letting Dewani go because of poor witness preparation by the defence.
