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NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — A Kenyan court Thursday launched an inquest into the 14-year-old murder of a British artist killed outside the home of the woman believed to be his mistress.
The killing of Antonio Rowland Trzebinski, 41, shot dead late 2001 in the affluent neighborhood of Karen in the capital Nairobi, has drawn parallels in the British media to the 1941 murder of Josslyn Hay, a member of a group of fast-living British colonial settlers known for their hedonistic lifestyle captured in the movie and book "White Mischief." Hay, the Earl of Erroll, was shot dead in Karen 75 years ago.
Author Errol Trzebinski, 80, Antonio's mother, has dismissed a theory by authorities that her son died in a carjacking. She testified Thursday at the start of the inquest that her son's killers were assassins. The inquest heard that three men were arrested but then were released for lack of evidence.
The U.K's Daily Mail said in an article focusing on the inquest earlier this week that Antonio, or Tonio as he was known to friends and family, was shot after a furious row which fractured his marriage to his German-born wife Anna, a fashion designer. The newspaper said Tonio's dalliance with Natasha Illum Berg, a professional hunter, had appalled many in the well-heeled white community he frequented.
"He was a very good father. He was a wonderful cook ... he was a human being. He drank heavily and if he did drugs, I never saw him with them. What can I say? Today was a very important step and I hope they will bring to a trial," Errol, Trzebinski's mother said of her son and the inquest.
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Associated Press journalist Josphat Kasire contributed to this report.
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