Cape Town - The Western Cape Correctional Services department has confirmed that Spanish dentist Mario-César Deus Yela, who is accused of murdering his twins in 2017, has died while in custody at Pollsmoor Prison.
The department hasn't disclosed the cause of Yela's death but is expected to issue a statement soon.
The case against Yela was due to resume in the Western Cape High Court in February after interpreters refused to work for the "pittance" offered by the courts.
Yela came to South Africa in 2017 to see his three young children - the twins, Maximo and Octavia, and a seven-year-old son. Yela and the children’s mother, Julia Engelhorn, divorced in 2015.
The couple had lived in Spain while they were still married but Engelhorn relocated to South Africa in 2012.
Police were called to Yela’s holiday apartment at Prince Road, Hout Bay, on April 6, 2017, after Engelhorn - who had been invited over lunch - found the children's lifeless bodies in one of the bedrooms.
According to Julia's attorney Juan Smuts, the twins were with Yela when he dropped the older son at school that morning.
Yela had allegedly fled the scene in Engelhorn's car and police tracked down her car to Wynberg, where he was arrested.