Sayefundeen Aslam Del Vecchio and Mussa Ahmad Jackson appear to be converts to Islam. How did converts to the Religion of Peace get the crazy idea that their new god would reward them for brutally murdering a pair of elderly botanists? It’s a total mystery! Can anyone explain? Mental illness, perhaps?
“ISIS link of ‘killers who murdered British couple and fed them to crocodiles’: Suspects accused of South Africa horror ‘had Islamic State leaflets’ and texted about ‘killing the kuffar,'” by Chris Jewers and Jamie Pyatt, MailOnline, October 5, 2022:
The alleged killers of a British couple who were brutally murdered before their bodies were fed to crocodiles had suspected links to ISIS, according to reports.
Respected botanists Rod Saunders, 74, and wife Rachel, 63, were in South Africa when they were targeted, kidnapped, beaten to death and then put in their sleeping bags and thrown into a river infested with the beasts.
Sayefundeen Aslam Del Vecchio, 39, his wife Bibi Fatima Patel, 28, and their lodger at the time Mussa Ahmad Jackson, 35, all deny kidnap, murder, robbery and theft. They are currently standing trial at Durban High Court.
It has now been revealed that detectives found pamphlets relating to the Islamic State terrorist group, along with an ISIS flag, at the defendant’s home when they were arrested, local reports say, according to The Times.
Del Vecchio, who converted to Islam, and Patel, whose father is a Muslim cleric, have both been included on South African security force’s watchlists.
Del Vecchio had been caught on a quadbike watching planes at Durban’s King Shaka airport more than two years before the murders.
What’s more, messages on WhatsApp and Telegram found on their phone showed the suspects discussed plans to ‘kill the kuffar [non-believer] and abduct their alias, to destroy infrastructure and put fear in the heart of the kuffar’. The suspects also described Rod and Rachael Saunders as ‘prey’ who were ripe for a ‘hunt’.
The charge that the suspects had links to Islamic State has not been submitted to the court, according to The Times.
The British couple spent six months a year scouring wild mountains and forests for sought-after-stock for their thriving worldwide mail-order business.
But while on their travels, it was said they met a gruesome end.
Their badly decomposed bodies, which had been devoured by the reptiles when they were pulled out of the water by fishermen days later, were unrecognisable as the missing couple and were brought to mortuaries.
It was only months later – when police could find no trace of the British couple – that they ordered all unidentified or unclaimed bodies in morgues to be DNA tested. It was then that Rod and Rachel were identified.
The full-scale hunt for the seed hunters had already resulted in four arrests – three of them have been charged with their murder, kidnap, robbery and theft of the married couple.
Del Vecchio, wife Bibi Fatima Patel, and their then-lodger Jackson deny the charges.
The fourth suspect, who was found to have bought cell phones belonging to the Saunders but was not involved in the kidnap and killing, was given a suspended sentence in return for vital evidence.
Around two percent of the population in South African is Muslin [sic], and it has never suffered a major Islamist attack. However, it has become a hot-bed of dirty money financing terrorism in southern and east Africa, the Times reports.
Large-scale trafficking of drugs, weapons and people have been facilitated by South Africa’s weak security institutions and permeable borders. This has allowed terrorist groups to fill their coffers….
Phil Copson says
“Rod Saunders, 74, and wife Rachel, 63, were in South Africa when they were targeted, kidnapped, beaten to death and then put in their sleeping bags and thrown into a river infested with the beasts.”
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Why would anyone put bodies into sleeping bags before throwing them into the river? Quite apart from the pointlessness of such an action, it would also be quite difficult.
Given that the only account of their deaths is provided by their murderers – whose account can’t be believed – it seems far more plausible that the couple were thrown alive to the crocodiles and that the suspects are only claiming that the couple were killed first and then put back into their sleeping-bags, in an attempt to mitigate the horror of what they did and receive less than their deserved punishment.
(Off-topic – but since when has 63 – or even 74 – been “elderly” ? 63 isn’t even retirement age, and I imagine that Robert Spencer must be in his 60s? “Elderly” – as in having significantly diminished physical strength, impaired senses, and loss of mental acuity, is Joe Biden territory, not that of fit people capable of spending 6 months a year trekking around Africa.)
somehistory says
I thought Mr. Spencer to be in his 50’s.
It would seem some people believe those over 50 to be “elderly” in whatever physical and mental condition they may be. Certainly after 60 is this true. However, some older individuals are still going strong in their eighth and ninth decade of life.
somehistory says
“badly decomposed bodies” “devoured”….How are these possible for the same bodies?
Throw these scum to the crocs. See how they like getting the treatment they meted out to the couple who were doing them no harm. “Do to others as you wish to be done to you.”
somehistory says
More information on this:
“World-Renowned Botanists Allegedly Beaten to Death and Fed to Crocodiles in South Africa”
Source: People
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/world-renowned-botanists-allegedly-beaten-to-death-and-fed-to-crocodiles-in-south-africa/ar-AA12Dtzg?ocid=msedgntp&cvi