Brit-Indian businessman Shrien Dewani, who has been charged with masterminding his wife’s murder during their honeymoon in Cape Town last year, may kill himself if he is extradited to South Africa, a London court has been told.

Dewani’s barrister Clare Montgomery asked two judges to block the extradition order on mental health grounds.

Montgomery said that Dewani’s mental health has deteriorated to the point where he was ‘too ill to be extradited’ and was a suicide risk.

She also argued that he was at serious risk of violence - including sexual violence - at the hands of other prisoners if kept in custody in South Africa.

“It will not be consistent with humanitarian principle to send some for extradition who is not fit to stand trial. Were Mr. Dewani to be extradited today, according to English standards, he would not be fit to stand his trial,” the Daily Mail quoted Montgomery, as saying.

“We do submit it will always be unjust to extradite somebody who is unfit - no matter how serious the charge,” she added.

Thirty-one-year-old Dewani has been denying any involvement in the death of Anni Dewani, who was shot dead in a taxi in Cape Town last November in an apparent car-jacking.

He faces charges of murder, conspiracy to commit murder, robbery with aggravating circumstances and obstructing the administration of justice.

Taxi driver Zola Tongo, who has admitted his part in the crime, has been jailed for 18 years for murder, kidnapping, robbery with aggravating circumstances and perverting the course of justice after agreeing a plea bargain.