THE British businessman Shrien Dewani has pleaded not guilty to arranging the murder of his wife in 2010 to the judge, on the first day of the long awaited trial in Cape Town, South Africa.
"I plead not guilty to all five counts, my lady," Dewani told the judge after the charges were read out by the state prosecutor. The allegations include murder, kidnapping and robbery with provoking circumstances.
Dewani, 34, who spent 3 years fighting extradition to South Africa, is accused of staging the abduction of his wife and paying three men to murder her.
The court was told that on the night of the killing, Dewani and Anni were driven around Cape Town by another accused, Zola Tongo, they turned off the motorway and according to the defendant: "Next thing I remember was banging noises coming from the front and the right hand side of the car."
"They spoke to each other in a language I did not understand. The next thing I remember, they were both shouting at me to get out," read Dewani’s statement to Judge Jeanette Traverso.
"The one with the gun put it to my head again and threatened to shoot me if I did not get out...I recall hitting the ground and the car speeding away. The last thing I had said to Anni was to be quiet and not to say anything. I said this to her in Gujarati," said the statement, read by defence lawyer Francois van Zyl.
Dewani also confirmed that he was bi-sexual, he told the court he had relationships with men he met at clubs, online or email chat sites, including a German prostitute named Leopold Leisser. The confession came after the British press accused him of murdering his model wife Anni, so he could escape living in a heterosexual relationship.
Called the ‘honeymoon murder’, Anni was killed with a single gunshot to the neck, whilst she was in the back of the taxi.
The court adjourned until Wednesday, October 8, when state lawyers said their next witness would be ready.
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