A Kenyan magistrate says the cause of death of British tycoon Harry Roy Veevers, whose exhumed body has been in a morgue for 11 years, cannot be determined.
David Odhiambo ordered the inquest to be closed, saying that “due to the level of [the body’s] decomposition at the time of exhumation – months after his burial” it was too hard to say what led to his death and “nobody can be called to answer any charge”.
Mr Veevers died on Valentine’s Day 2013 in the coastal city of Mombasa. He was buried in accordance with Islamic rites and without a post-mortem.
It led to a lengthy legal battle, with his two sons from a previous marriage calling for an investigation into how their father had died.
The sons, Richard and Philip Veevers, who were living in the UK, accused their father’s second wife, Azra Parveen Din, and her daughters, Helen and Alexandra, of being involved in his death, allegedly so that they could inherit his multi-million dollar estate. They have vehemently denied any wrongdoing.
On Tuesday, Mr Odhiambo ruled that because of the state of the the body and “the conflicting reports by the pathologists, government chemist and other experts” no charges could be made.
“The investigations relating to the death of the deceased are hereby considered closed unless and until new information comes to light,” he added.
The magistrate said that Mr Veever’s body should be released from the morgue in Mombasa upon payment of the fee that had accumulated for the last 11 years.
But it is unclear who the body will be handed over to as Mr Odhiambo said he could not make that decision and instructed both families to seek direction from a different court.
At the time of Mr Veever’s death in 2013, his second wife, who was living with him in Mombasa, said that her husband had died of natural causes.
But his Islamic burial, done quickly after his death, raised suspicions from his sons, who said their father was not Muslim and had been buried under a false name. They also alleged that their father may have been poisoned.
In January last year, a magistrates’ court ruled that his death was not suspicious.
However, his sons successfully challenged that ruling and petitioned the High Court to reopen the inquest and allow them to submit new evidence.
The High Court referred the case back to a magistrates’ court, citing irregular procedures leading to the initial ruling.
Tests conducted after the exhumation revealed traces of a pesticide, although pathologists differed on whether this could have been the cause of his death.
Tuesday’s ruling mentioned the post-mortem findings that found traces of a poisonous substance on both the remains and soil where his body was exhumed.
But it also cited the “conflicting findings by pathologists, government chemist and other experts”, as a reason why the cause of death “remains unknown”.
Additional reporting by Anita Nkonge in Nairobi
