Briton was buried in a hurry, says detective

The burial of Harry Roy Veever, a Briton who died in his house in Mombasa, was rushed and unprocedural, a retired police officer has said.

Veever died on February 14, 2013, at his palatial house in Nyali Estate.

The cause of his death is being contested by his widow, Azra Parveez Deen, and her daughters on one hand, and Veever’s two sons from a previous marriage to an English woman, Florence Marvis.

Florence’s sons, Richard and Philip, suspect that Veever was poisoned while Azra and her daughters insist he died of natural causes.

Yesterday, retired police superintendent Shadrack Juma, who investigated Veever’s death, told an inquest that Arza failed to inform the police of her husband’s death and burial.

The retired officer said when a person dies at home under any circumstances, police are supposed to visit the scene, examine the body and take it to the morgue to await a postmortem examination.

He said Veever was buried without a postmortem report to ascertain the cause of his death.

Testifying before Mombasa Resident Magistrate Julius Ndegwa, Mr Juma said Veever’s body was removed from his house without a police report on his death.

“The police did not get any report when the body was released from the morgue,” he added.

Initially, the State had indicted Azra and her daughters for murder through poisoning, but the charge was withdrawn and instead an inquest into the death launched.

Richard and Philip obtained orders to exhume Veever’s body that had been buried in a Muslim cemetery. A subsequent autopsy found traces of an insecticide in the Briton’s stomach. However, tests on samples sent to the UK did not find any traces of insecticide. Veever and Arza came to Kenya nearly 20 years ago.