A South African court has sentenced three people to life imprisonment for the 2018 kidnapping, robbery and murder of a British couple whose disappearance during a plant-collecting trip in KwaZulu-Natal shocked both South Africa and the United Kingdom.
The KwaZulu-Natal division of the Durban High Court on Thursday handed two life sentences each to Saffydeen Aslam del Vecchio, 46, his wife Fatima Patel, 35, and Malawian national Ahmad Mussa after finding them guilty of killing Rachel Saunders, 64, and her husband Rodney Saunders, 73.
The three were convicted of the murders last month following a lengthy legal process linked to the deaths of the couple, who were well-known botanists and seed collectors.
Rachel and Rodney, who held both South African and British citizenship, disappeared in February 2018 while conducting research in Ngoye Forest, about 150 kilometres north of Durban. They had been collecting indigenous plants and seeds during a trip through KwaZulu-Natal province.
Their bodies were later recovered from a river. Rodney's body was discovered by fishermen in the Tugela River and identified several weeks later, while Rachel's body was identified on June 13, 2018.
According to South Africa's National Prosecuting Authority, the couple had been travelling with research equipment and camping gear when they were abducted.
Police investigations revealed that the accused also stole the couple's belongings, including bank cards that were later used to buy various items near Durban.
Shortly after the pair went missing, authorities recovered their vehicle, which contained blood stains. Investigators also established that about 734,000 rand (£42,000; $44,700) had been withdrawn from the couple's bank accounts.
In addition to the life sentences, the court handed each of the three convicts 15 years in prison for robbery with aggravating circumstances and four years for theft.
Del Vecchio received an additional five-year sentence in a separate case involving malicious damage to property.
The court ordered that the sentences run concurrently.
Patel had previously come to the attention of authorities in 2016 when she and her brother were arrested during an anti-terrorism operation near Johannesburg. However, no charges were filed against either of them.
She and del Vecchio were also alleged to have raised a flag associated with the Islamic State group in the reserve where the Saunders couple disappeared in 2018.
Police said del Vecchio and Patel were arrested on February 15, 2018, after a search of their property uncovered items belonging to the murdered couple.
Mussa was arrested three weeks later and charged in connection with the case.
The sentencing brings to a close one of South Africa's most closely followed murder cases, nearly eight years after the botanists vanished during what was meant to be a research expedition.