Shrien Dewani: will inquest resolve unanswered questions?

(Image credit: Mike Hutchins)

By The Week Staff

last updated 2 February 2015

Shrien Dewani urged to explain himself on the witness stand

25 November

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1.00pm: Prosecutor Adrian Mopp continues his argument after the lunch break. He has already told the court that Anni's convicted murderers are "not the A-team of contract killers" and could barely organise transport to the intended murder spot. "We are dealing with an amateurish attempt," he told the judge. "If it were not for the killing of the deceased, it would actually be comical, the manner in which this matter was set about." Mopp says there would have had to have been a "conspiracy within a conspiracy" to falsely implicate Shrien Dewani. "It's almost beyond them," he says.

11.00am: Prosecutor Adrian Mopp argues that Shrien's version of events should be tested. He has pointed to several problems with the defence's case. Shrien claims he had no idea that the taxi he and Anni were travelling in would be hijacked, let alone that his wife would be shot. Mopp asks if it was therefore merely a coincidence that Anni supposedly wanted to return to the Gugulethu township at the exact time that their taxi driver had planned to run into the two hitmen. "The court is led to believe that it is completely fortuitous that two people are waiting and, lo and behold, the deceased wanted to go back into the township at that exact time?" said Mopp.

The case against murder suspect Shrien Dewani is "based on conspiracy", his lawyer has argued in court today. The defence team is trying to persuade Judge Jeanette Traverso to throw out the case against Shrien, who is accused of plotting to have his wife Anni Dewani murdered on their honeymoon in Cape Town in November 2010. If the defence is successful, Shrien could walk free from Western Cape High Court as an innocent man.

So far in the trial, the judge has heard from 16 witnesses called by the prosecution. The key witnesses were three men who admitted involvement in the plot to murder Anni. Zola Tongo and Mziwamadoda Qwabe, both jailed for Anni's murder, and middleman Monde Mbolombo, granted immunity for testifying in an earlier trial, all pointed the finger at Shrien. However, the defence showed repeated inconsistencies in their evidence. Here is what we have heard today:

1.30pm: After lunch, Van Zyl continues to argue that taxi driver Tongo's evidence is "not worth the paper it's written on". Again, he suggests that Qwabe was the one who shot Anni, not Mngeni as previously believed. Something was "amiss" in Qwabe's testimony, says Van Zyl. For example, why did they shoot her in a residential area rather than a more discreet area? He also points out that the witnesses contradicted each other about who was sitting where in the stolen taxi. "Qwabe's evidence that Mngeni shot the deceased was a lie. Why is he lying?" asks the lawyer.

Judge Traverso reveals some of her own concerns about the state's evidence and even jokes about one state witness, saying she "won't ask" Van Zyl about the reconstruction done by one police ballistics expert. "What concerns me about this conspiracy is that we have a very clear agreement as to how much money was going to be paid, where they were going to meet the hijackers, who was going to be put off where," she says. "And then the plan just falls flat. What was going to happen to the car? Where would she be killed?" After Judge Traverso tells Van Zyl he does not need to address Mbolombo's evidence, the lawyer wraps up for the day.

9.00am: Van Zyl begins telling the court why Shrien's case should be thrown out. "The whole case is based on conspiracy," he says. The evidence from taxi driver Zola Tongo is the "pillar on which the state's case is built", says Van Zyl, but Tongo proved himself to be a "completely unreliable witness". The testimonies of Mziwamadoda Qwabe and Monde Mbolombo rely "entirely" on what Tongo told them. But the lawyer says Tongo's evidence was of "poor quality" and that there is "no credible evidence on record, on which the court can convict".

9.30am: The prosecution calls its next witness, police officer Captain Paul Hendrickse. The court hears that police investigating the case obtained emails sent from Anni to Shrien. In one email, dated 5 November 2010, just eight days before Anni was shot, she suggests that Shrien had expressed doubts about the marriage. "You did say if you saw in a crystal ball how this marriage would have been like then you wouldn't have got married," she wrote. Anni says she is "letting this go" but asks him to tell her if he feels anything else negative about the relationship. She warns that pretending everything is good when it isn't will result in them "hating each other".

1.00pm: Hendrickse claims Shrien has changed his version of events. In his police statement, Shrien claimed he gave Anni's rings to the attackers, but then specifically asked the officer to find the ring he had hidden in the taxi. Hendrickse says Shrien never mentioned that he had asked taxi driver Zola Tongo to arrange a helicopter trip as a surprise for his wife. If Shrien had mentioned it, Tongo would have become a "suspect right from the beginning and it would have provided a motive", says Hendrickse. The police officer suggests this part of Dewani's testimony is "newly fabricated".

10.00am: Defence lawyer Francois Van Zyl asks Mbolombo why he refers to hitman Mziwamadoda Qwabe as "Abongile" in all his witness statements and court testimonies, when Qwabe said he had never heard of the name. Van Zyl suggests Mbolombo had been covering for Qwabe by using a fake name and later lied that it was a nickname. Mbolombo claims he had forgotten Qwabe's name and did not want to ask him because they had known each other for so long. "Where did you get the name Abongile from? Is it something you made up?" asks Judge Jeanette Traverso. "Yes," says Mbolombo. Van Zyl asks him why he would then continue to use the made-up name once he had found out Qwabe's real name. "There is no particular reason for keeping on with that name, but since I started using it, I continued using it," says Mbolombo.

Midday: Mbolombo admits that he contacted the hitmen hours before the murder to insist that it must happen that night. Van Zyl suggests that this is evidence of Mbolombo "taking control" and "giving instructions". The witness agrees and says: "I was making sure the job was done. Since there was money to be received, I wanted to make sure it happened." However, he says the instruction had come from taxi driver Zola Tongo. Judge Traverso asks if he maintains that he took a "leading role" throughout the murder plot. Mbolombo says this is correct.

1.00pm: Monde Mbolombo, a former hotel receptionist, has been testifying this afternoon. He told the court that it was financial difficulties that led him to agree to arrange Anni Dewani's murder. "At the time when all of this happened, I was in financial problems, so we were not thinking how precious a person's life was," he said. "In my language, there is a saying that no price can be put on a life. We fell into this trap because we were thinking about money, not how precious a life is."

10.00am: Captain Vinesh Lutchman, a South African police officer, has been on the witness stand. Judge Jeanette Traverso asked whether there was anything about Dewani's behaviour that made him suspicious in the days after the murder. Lutchman said Shrien had not acted suspiciously, although he had not attended a Hindu ceremony to bless his wife's body before it was repatriated. Instead, he had gone shopping. Defence lawyer Pieter Botha suggested Dewani had identified her body the previous day and that had been "quite traumatic". Lutchman accepted that identifying a body was not pleasant.

1.00pm: Shrien's defence lawyer Francois Van Zyl sums up taxi driver Zola Tongo's evidence. He argues that the killers have lied in court to have their sentences reduced. Shrien will testify that he took out a large amount of cash as a deposit for a helicopter trip and this was in Anni's handbag, says Van Zyl. He suggests, as well, that Tongo was not in the back of the taxi during the carjacking, as he claimed, but in the front passenger seat. "In summary the accused will say your evidence that he conspired with you to have his wife killed is simply not the truth," says Van Zyl.

Midday: Van Zyl reveals that one of Tongo's fellow prisoners will testify that the taxi driver told him "what really happened". Prisoner Bernand Mitchell apparently contacted Dewani's legal team after talking to Tongo in prison. Mitchell allegedly asked why Tongo had killed Anni. "You said your accusers jeopardised the whole plan," Van Zyl tells Tongo. "The plan was to kidnap her and hold her hostage. One of them wanted to rape her. A quarrel ensued and a shot went off. You further told him that you thought of blackmailing Mr Dewani to kill his wife." Tongo allegedly told his fellow prisoner that he had agreed to stitch up Dewani to get a lesser prison sentence. Tongo tells the court the claims are "nonsense and all lies".

11.00am: Tongo claims that Shrien handed him cash after Anni's death, in payment for the murder. There is CCTV footage of the two men entering a room in Shrien's hotel for about a minute. But Van Zyl says Shrien handed him a plastic bag containing a thank you card and R1,000 (£56) out of pity after the traumatic night. Tongo says this is "nonsense" and insists that Shrien had only given him money – and that this was not the full amount he had promised for arranging Anni's murder.

Van Zyl tells the court that two other people were in the room when Shrien gave Tongo the plastic bag. He asks if Tongo therefore looked for Shrien after he realised he had been underpaid. The driver claims he used "the corner of his eye" to look for Shrien as he left, but could not see him. The lawyer says there is CCTV footage of Shrien giving thank you cards to a police officer and family who helped him. "Sir, whether he sent a card to the minister or president, it doesn't concern me," said Tongo. "He never gave me a card."

10.00am: Tongo told the court that he would normally earn up to 40,000 rand (£2,260) in a busy month of driving people around in his taxi – yet he claims he was offered just R5,000 (£280) for fixing a murder and suffering damage to his car. Defence lawyer Francois Van Zyl asked him: "You were quite satisfied to take R5000 for your part in this conspiracy, without considering that there may be damage to your car or you may lose the car? Is that what you are saying?" To which Tongo replied: "That is what I initially said. I was a fool and I allowed myself to be misled." He says he did not consider until much later what would happen to his car, which was his only source of income.

12.30pm: Tongo has told the court that after picking up the Dewanis from their hotel he planned to take them straight to the Gugulethu township, where two hitmen were supposed to carry out a fake carjacking before killing Anni. However, there was no sign of them as he drove through so he carried on driving to a restaurant. He claimed Shrien texted him from the back seat asking what was going on. However, Van Zyl cut in to tell the court that there was no record whatsoever of a text being sent to Tongo at that time. "There was communication between me and the accused," said Tongo. "The fact that it doesn't appear on the record, I don't know."

Under cross-examination, Tongo admitted that more statements in his original affidavit are incorrect. For example, in his affidavit he claimed Shrien threatened to kill him if he did not kill Anni. Today he said this was untrue. Van Zyl pointed out that Tongo also told the court that he had decided which route he would take to Gugulethu, but in his affidavit he wrote that one of the hitmen told him which way to go. Tongo claimed that he is only just remembering some things. Judge Jeanette Traverso leant in to ask him: "So your statement is not 100 per cent correct?" He answered: "That is correct."

10.00am: Defence lawyer Francois Van Zyl has continued to point out the inconsistencies in Zola Tongo's various statements made under oath. Tongo initially told police that he did not know the names of the killers, but he later said he had simply forgotten them. Van Zyl pointed out that one of killers was even saved as a contact on his phone. "As time went on, I remembered their names. It was a mistake. Everyone makes mistakes," Tongo told the court.

Tongo also claimed that he thought Anni was Shrien's business partner, not his wife, when he allowed his car to be hijacked by the two hitmen. Yet one of the hitmen, Mziwamadoda Qwabe, claims Tongo specifically said that a man wanted his wife killed. Van Zyl reads from the statement of Monde Mbolombo, who put Tongo in touch with the two hitmen. Mbolombo also said Tongo told him that a man wanted his wife killed. "I never said that to Monde," Tongo told the court. "This is the same Monde who said Islamic people like to kill their wives. I can't comment on what Monde said." Monde had allegedly made a joke to Tongo about Shrien and Anni, saying: "Eh! I wonder whether those are the Islamic people."

Tongo claimed his knees became "weak" as he later drove Anni and Shrien to the Gugulethu township, where he had agreed a meeting point with the hitmen. One of them jumped onto the car bonnet and the other pointed a gun at him, he said. Tongo claimed that both men carried a firearm, which contradicts Qwabe's claim that he was not carrying a gun. The taxi driver said he ended up in the back of the car on the left-hand side, Shrien was in the middle and Anni was on the right. All three were ordered to hand over their mobile phones and Shrien was trying to comfort Anni who was crying as the car drove off. At one point the witness appeared to get confused about Anni, suggesting that she was not the same woman he had met the previous day.

9.00am: German escort Leopold Leisser was back in the witness stand again this morning. Following a plea from the prosecution, Judge Jeanette Traverso allowed him to answer questions on aspects other than Shrien's sexuality. The prosecution pointed out that Shrien was with Anni when he was seeing Leisser, which is therefore "relevant in determining how committed the accused was to the deceased". Leisser, who claims he met with Shrien on three occasions, told the court that he first learned of Anni's death from CNN. He contacted the police to let them know about his relationship with Shrien, but also sold his story to the media for £18,000.

1.00pm: Taxi driver Zola Tongo took the stand this afternoon, claiming that Shrien first approached him at the airport in Cape Town. After dropping the couple off at their hotel, Tongo said Shrien told him he had a "job" for him and asked him to wait in the hotel car park. Tongo claims Shrien later came down and told him he wanted someone killed. At the time, Shrien allegedly claimed it was a "business partner", a "woman" who would be arriving in Cape Town the following day. Tongo conferred with hotel receptionist Monde Mbolombo. He claimed Shrien later specified that he wanted it to look like the car had been hijacked. Tongo admitted that he went to meet Mziwamadoda Qwabe to organise the murder.

However, the defence quickly objected after Leisser said he had agreed for Shrien to sleep over at his home, which he said was an "extremely unusual" arrangement. According to reports from the court, Judge Jeanette Traverso "angrily" agreed that she could not understand the relevance of that information. Shrien has already admitted to having sexual interactions with prostitutes, including Leisser.

The prosecution argued that Leisser would testify that Shrien was in two minds about whether to get married and this proves why he might have wanted to have his wife killed. However, the judge suggested that a motive would only be relevant once it has been proved that there was a plot between Shrien and the three murder convicts to kill his wife. She told Leisser to stand down, asking the prosecution to prepare a written statement instead and to call the next witness, who looks likely to be taxi driver Zola Tongo.

9.00am: Warrant officer Pieter Engelbrecht, a ballistics expert, has finished being cross-examined. Last week, the defence criticised the police for their "negligent" reconstruction of the shooting. Engelbrecht admitted that he only measured the arm of Xolile Mngeni, the man convicted of shooting Anni, two weeks ago and did not want to push him to extend his arm fully as he was in a wheelchair and very ill with a brain tumour. Mngeni has since died. Engelbrecht said he only took the gun measurements a few days ago, and not even those of the gun used in the shooting. The defence said it was clear Engelbrecht is not an expert witness and "a child could see the difference".

A police ballistics expert was accused of "negligence" today in the trial of honeymoon murder suspect Shrien Dewani. Warrant officer Pieter Engelbrecht has been testifying about the trajectory of the shot that killed Shrien's wife Anni Dewani on 13 November 2010 when the couple's car was hijacked during their honeymoon in Cape Town. But the defence team called Engelbrecht's credibility into question and said he was "miles away from being an objective expert witness".

2.00pm: Warrant officer Pieter Engelbrecht, a ballistics expert, has been giving evidence. The taxi car seat and video footage of ballistics tests have also been shown in court. Englebrecht told the judge that he has been involved in the Dewani case since November 2012, when he was asked to retest exhibits for the Xolile Mngeni trial, including the gun, cartridge and bullet. Mngeni, who was sentenced to 25 years in prison for firing the shot that killed Anni, died of a brain tumour on Saturday.

But in cross examination Shrien's lawyer, Van Zyl, criticised the police for their "negligent" reconstruction of the shooting. The analysis was carried out in a test car, not the actual taxi in which Anni was killed, and the position of the seats in the reconstruction was different from that on the night of the murder. Engelbrecht also admitted he had not measured Mngeni's arms until last week. Van Zyl accused him of being "miles away from being an objective expert witness".

Two witnesses have accused honeymoon murder suspect Shrien Dewani of acting strangely after he and his wife had their taxi hijacked in Cape Town. Shrien claims he was forced out of the car on 13 November 2010. His wife Anni was later found shot dead. Anni's cousin Sneha Mashru has told the court that she became suspicious of Dewani in the weeks after the shooting, while a police sergeant, who took Shrien back to his hotel on the night of the murder, has also questioned his behaviour.

11.30am: South African Police Service Sergeant Cornelius Jacobus Mellet has taken the witness stand. He was with Dewani following the hijacking. He also says Shrien told him that Anni had wanted to see the township nightlife. Mellet said that as a married man himself, he found it "strange" that Dewani did not ask "what the police, in their power, were doing to find his wife". Shrien "looked tense and was sweating", said the witness.

11.00am: Anni's cousin Sneha Mashru returns to the witness stand. She is asked how she expected Shrien to behave while tending to Anni's body. "I wanted to see the sadness, the grieving, the love," she says. Defence lawyer Van Zyl says Shrien admits that he is a "calculated perfectionist". He notes that his client spent hundreds of thousands of pounds on renovations for his home for Anni and had bought her around 100 saris.

Mashru said Shrien spoke to her on the phone from South Africa before Anni's death and told her that Anni wanted to see the townships in Cape Town. Defence lawyer Francois Van Zyl asks why Mashru did not tell the police this in her statement. He notes that she also did not tell police that Shrien later told her that Anni had been shot because she was screaming. Mashru said that had not been her focus at the time.

2.30pm: Anni Dewani's cousin Sneha Mashru is giving evidence. She has told the Cape Town court that Anni was thinking of divorcing Shrien just days before she was killed. Mashru claims Anni was texting her from South Africa during her honeymoon, saying: "What should I do? I am really trying...." On 11 November, two days before she died, things appeared to improve. Anni text her cousin saying: "Hi, it's much better now. Going better than before. Hate the word divorce." That was the last time the cousins were in contact.

Mashru also said Shrien and Anni rarely saw each other while they were engaged and that, in her view, Shrien acted strangely after his wife was killed. Mashru told the court that Shrien had all the funeral arrangements on a spreadsheet. "He also said: 'Do not ever repeat this to anyone else. The reason why Anni was shot was because she was screaming,'" she said. "He said had she not been screaming, she wouldn't have been shot."

Mashru made a secret recording of a meeting held to clear the air between her family and the Dewanis after Anni's death. In the transcript, Shrien makes no mention of his meeting with Tongo, the taxi driver, who was later convicted for his part in organising Anni's murder, nor the money that Shrien later claimed he gave to Tongo because he "felt sorry for him". On cross-examination, Mashru says it was not an arranged marriage and that Anni did in fact love Shrien.

10.30am: The Sun reporter Nick Parker, who has been a journalist for 26 years, is testifying. He interviewed Shrien Dewani in Max Clifford's offices after Anni's death. A copy of the interview has been handed to the court. Parker says Shrien was "reasonably calm" at the beginning but became quite distressed as the interview progressed. Shrien said Anni wanted to see African nightlife and had wanted to do an African dance at a family member's baby shower, Parker tells the court

In December 2010, Parker also interviewed Leopold Leisser, a gay escort who claimed Shrien had paid him for sex and was desperate to get out of his marriage. Parker put the claims to Clifford, who was Shrien's publicist at the time. Shrien's solicitors responded that Leisser had invented the story and that their client was at the gym or with his family at the times specified. Shrien's defence lawyer Francois Van Zyl tells the court that the solicitors' letter was written on the instructions of Shrien's brother Preyen. He suggests that Leisser was paid £30,000 for the story. Parker says he cannot recall.

The trial of honeymoon murder suspect Shrien Dewani began with a surprise statement about his sexuality and has been punctuated by dramatic moments ever since. It has taken four years to get the British millionaire into court for the trial, following a long extradition process from the UK to South Africa. His wife Anni Dewani was shot dead on 13 November 2010 after the couple were driven in a taxi through a township near Cape Town during their honeymoon. Shrien is accused of ordering the murder. Three South African men – Zola Tongo, Mziwamadoda Qwabe and Xolile Mngeni – have already been convicted in relation to her death. Shrien has pleaded not guilty to the five charges against him, which include murder, kidnapping and obstructing justice.

On the very first day of the trial Shrien admitted that he considered himself bisexual. Rumours of his "secret homosexuality" had circulated since just after Anni's death, but he had always denied them. In a statement, read out by his lawyer Francois Van Zyl, he said his sexual interactions with men were "mostly physical experiences" or email chats with people he met online or in clubs and included prostitutes. The admission appears to have taken the sting out the state's case, which was expected to argue that Shrien was gay and plotted to have his wife killed to escape his marriage.

Qwabe, who is currently serving 25 years in prison for Anni's murder, is seen as a key witness in the trial. He told the court that a price of 15,000 rand, just £834 at today's exchange rate, was agreed to kill her. Asked if he knew ahead of the murder that Dewani wanted her dead, Qwabe said he was told "there was a husband who wanted his wife killed". The two other convicts, Qwabe's associate Mngeni and the Dewanis' taxi driver Tongo, may also give evidence against Shrien.

At the beginning of the trial Van Zyl read out a letter from Shrien to Anni, written after an "angry disagreement" on 24 May 2010. Taken at face value, the letter suggests Shrien was in love with his wife, despite the fact that he admits they argued frequently. It conflicts with claims by Leopold Leisser, a male escort based in the UK, who said Shrien was "desperate" to get out of his marriage. Sneha Mashru, Anni's cousin, also reportedly told British police that they had a troubled relationship. It is possible that Leisser and Mashru will be called to testify for the state.

In a surprise move, Shrien's defence lawyer cast doubt on the belief that Qwabe's associate Mngeni was the one to shoot Anni. Van Zyl said that gunpowder found on Qwabe's gloves suggested it was him who murdered Anni. "The injuries caused by that bullet are not what the pathologists would normally see in an execution-type killing," said Van Zyl. The lawyer suggested that Qwabe killed Anni by accident as he tried to pull her out of the car, possibly to rape her in the scrubland. This would provide a very different explanation for Anni's death to the one put forward by the state. Qwabe denied Van Zyl's claims.

On Tuesday, the judge stopped the prosecution from reading out a series of sexually graphic emails from Shrien to a mystery third person. Prosecutor Adrian Mopp tried to argue that they were relevant because they showed Shrien was conflicted about whether to get married or to come out as gay. "Obviously it is not a motive to kill but the man expresses a conflict within himself," Mopp told the judge. But Traverso said that, because of Dewani's admission, his sexuality was no longer in dispute and ruled the evidence inadmissible. This came as a shock to the prosecutors, who will potentially have to rethink who they call as witnesses.

Dewani is accused of ordering his wife Anni's murder on their honeymoon in South Africa on 13 November 2010. The couple were held at gunpoint while being driven in a taxi through a township near Cape Town. Shrien was thrown from the taxi and Anni was later found dead in the back seat. The state is expected to argue that Shrien, from Bristol, is gay and plotted to have his wife killed to escape a marriage that he was pushed into by his family.

However, defence lawyer Francois Van Zyl suggests that the statement taken by Stefanus on behalf of Shrien that night was not wholly accurate. Van Zyl confirms that Dewani did not read through this initial statement and simply signed it and that the statement was not sworn under oath. The lawyer says the word "township" written in the statement was not even in his client's vocabulary at that time. The court has also heard how Stefanus lost his pocket-book containing his notes from interviewing Dewani on the night of the murder.

Shrien's defence lawyer Francois Van Zyl objects to the emails being read out in court. He says they are "highly prejudicial" to his client because of their graphic sexual nature. The state argues that the emails provide "context" and an "insight" into the relationship Shrien had with the third party. Judge Jeanette Traverso says that the relationship pre-dates the offence by more than a year and questions the relevance of the emails. "[Shrien] was conflicted about whether to get married or whether to come out," says the prosecutor. "And what does that provide, motive to kill?" asks Judge Traverso. The state says it is "not a motive to kill" but shows that Shrien was conflicted within himself. "That's true for many people," says the judge.

Two other men – Zola Tongo and Xolile Mngeni – have also been convicted of charges related to Anni's murder. It was believed Mngeni was the one who fired the shot that killed her on 13 November 2010. Anni and Shrien were held at gunpoint while being driven in a taxi through a township near Cape Town while on their honeymoon. Shrien was thrown from the taxi and Anni was later found dead in the back seat. The state is expected to argue that Shrien, from Bristol, is gay and plotted to have his wife killed to escape a marriage that he was pushed into by his family.

2.00pm: The court is hearing from Simon Johnson, a British IT expert who worked for Gaydar, which calls itself "the premier gay dating site". Johnson explains to the court how Gaydar works, describing it as a "dating and personals website" with profiles, chat rooms and pictures. He is asked specifically about the Asiansubguy account used by Shrien. The last log-in was when Shrien removed the account on 21 November 2010, eight days after Anni's death.

The court hears that it cost Shrien £60 for one year's Gaydar membership. On his profile, he described himself as a single gay man and a "passive, sub guy" looking for "single gay man, gay couple, bi-couple, group". Questions turn to exactly how a Gaydar profile can be accessed. Johnson says that sometimes a Gaydar user's details are saved for the next session, but they always have to manually click to log in. This potentially undermines any attempt by the defence to argue that Shrien's computer automatically logged him onto the site during his honeymoon.

11.00am: Van Zyl casts doubt on the evidence being given by prosecution witness Mziwamadoda Qwabe. He claims there were two firearms in the car, not one, as Qwabe has claimed. The lawyer also suggests Qwabe's associate Mngeni was in the back of the car with the Dewanis not in the front as Qwabe has previously said. Van Zyl asks Qwabe why the gloves he wore on the night were found with gunshot residue on them. Qwabe says there may have been explosive residue on them from when the gun went off in the car or when he retrieved the bullet casing.

In a dramatic new line of questioning, the defence lawyer suggests it was Qwabe, not Mngeni, who shot Anni as he was trying to get her out of car to rape her. He suggests Shrien was set free because the carjackers planned to demand a ransom. During his cross examination, Van Zyl has suggested that Shrien will take the witness box at some point in the trial. Qwabe denies that it was him who fired the shot.

Defence lawyer Van Zyl has been picking holes in Qwabe's previous statements to the courts and attempting to portray him as an unreliable witness. Van Zyl has also been trying to establish the role played by Monde Mbolombo, a hotel clerk alleged to have been a "middleman" in the murder. The defence lawyer claims Mbolombo was more than just a link between Qwabe and the Dewanis' taxi driver Zola Tongo. The court was shown phone records between Mbolombo, Tongo and Qwabe in the lead-up to the murder. Qwabe says Mbolombo called him on the morning of the murder to say that the "job must be done that night".

Qwabe said taxi driver Zola Tongo had told him that "someone wanted somebody killed" and asked if he knew anyone who could help. Qwabe said he agreed to meet Tongo at a shopping centre, where Tongo told him there was "a husband who wanted his wife killed". The witness described another meeting with his friend "Wati" (Xolile Mngeni) and Tongo, in which they organised the fake carjacking. "We agreed on the route we would take," he said. "We agreed where the hijacking was going to happen. That was more or less what we discussed that day. I was in the vehicle for 20 to 30 minutes. A lady would be killed and it had to look like a hijacking. Nothing would happen to the husband and Zola."

Qwabe said he took the wheel during the carjacking on 13 November 2010, while his friend Wati sat in the passenger seat and Tongo sat in the back telling the couple to stay quiet. "We ordered Zola out of the car... He told us the money was in the pouch behind the front passenger door," said the witness. Qwabe claimed that as they forced Shrien out of the car, he had told the carjackers he would go to one of the houses and report the incident. Qwabe said he then heard a gunshot while he was driving and his accomplice admitted he had shot "the lady".

Midday: The court has watched video footage of the crime scene and heard details of how Anni Dewani was killed. The first witness for the prosecution, pathologist Dr Janette Verster, said Anni died from a "gunshot wound at close range". Shrien and members of Anni's family were visibly distressed by the evidence, which included images of Anni's body on the back seat of the taxi. The victim suffered a gunshot wound to the left hand, chest-wall and possibly on left side of her neck, said Verster.

10.30am: Shrien Dewani has pleaded not guilty to the five charges against him, which include murder, kidnapping and obstructing justice. In a statement, read by his defence lawyer Francois van Zyl, Shrien admitted: "I've had sexual interaction with both males and females. I consider myself bisexual." He told the court that his sexual interactions with males were "mostly physical experiences or email chats with people I met online or in clubs, including prostitutes". However, he insisted he was "instantly physically attracted" to Swedish-born bride Anni and that his "whole world came crashing down" when she was found shot dead.

Shrien said he had met taxi driver Zola Tongo, who is serving a prison sentence for his part in Anni's murder, when they arrived in South Africa. Tongo had helped change £5,000 for Shrien in order to get a "good market rate" and had also bought helicopter tickets on Shrien's behalf as a surprise for Anni, the court was told. Shrien was carrying 10,000 rand, around £550, for a meal and the taxi journey when Tongo's car was stopped by carjackers on the night of the murder.

Dewani said he recalled somebody waving a gun in the air and telling him to lie down. "We were both terrified and immediately complied with his demands. I was lying half on top of Anni. Another person was behind the steering wheel. I do not know where Tongo was at that stage," he said. Shrien said he refused to get out of the car when asked, but a gun was held to his head until he complied. He then tried to find help before the police took him back to his hotel. Shrien said he later planned to give some money to Tongo because he felt sorry for him.

The three convicted South African men – Zola Tongo, Mziwamadoda Qwabe and Xolile Mngeni – are expected to testify against Shrien. Sneha Hindocha, Anni's cousin, may also be called by the state. She reportedly told police of the couple's troubled relationship before their wedding. Prosecutors are also likely to call Leopold Leisser, a gay German escort based in the UK, who claims Shrien had paid him for sex, reports News 24.

Xolile Mngeni, 23 at the time of the murder, was convicted in November 2012 of firing the shot that killed Anni. The judge described Mngeni, who suffered from a rare form of brain cancer, as an "evil person" and sentenced him to life in prison. Two other men – Zola Tongo, 31 at the time, and Mziwamadoda Qwabe, 26 – were also convicted in connection to the murder. Tongo, the taxi driver who arranged the shooting, was jailed for 18 years, while Qwabe, Mngeni's accomplice, was jailed for 25 years.

Dewani is charged with five counts relating to the murder of his wife: conspiracy to commit kidnapping, robbery with aggravating circumstances, murder, kidnapping and defeating the ends of justice. Tongo alleges that Dewani offered him 15,000 rand to have his wife killed. But Dewani's family, who at one point enlisted the services of PR spin master Max Clifford, describe the allegations as "totally ludicrous".

Dewani spent years fighting extradition to South Africa, with his lawyers claiming he suffered from acute stress disorder and depression. In March 2014, the High Court refused to allow any further appeal and the following month he arrived in South Africa. His wife's sister Ami Denborg said today's ruling was a "relief" for the family after waiting for so long. "I know this autumn is going to be tough for us, but we still want the trial to start so that we can get the information we need – we can get to know what really happened," she said. "It feels like we're moving forward. It's still a long way to go but at least we're taking steps in the right direction, and this feels like a huge step in the right direction."

Shrien Dewani, from Westbury-on-Trym, near Bristol, was privately educated at Bristol Grammar School, studied economics at Manchester University and qualified as an accountant. He left a job at Deloitte in London to return to Bristol to help run his family firm, PSP Healthcare, which owns a number of care homes. Swedish-born Anni Hindocha was an engineering graduate and part-time model. She met Dewani while staying with her cousin Sneha in Britain in 2009. Dewani proposed the following year in June, flying Anni to Paris and giving her a £25,000 diamond engagement ring. They married in October in an extravagant Hindu wedding in Mumbai. Less than two weeks later, Anni was shot dead.

Text messages: The court is likely to look at phone records and text messages between Dewani and Tongo, but also from Anni to her family. It has been claimed that Anni texted her cousin Sneha Hindocha a series of anguished texts in the run-up to her wedding, including one that said: "I don't want to marry him... I'm going to be unhappy for the rest of my life." Another report claimed that Anni had told her cousin that she had sex with Shrien five times in one night, but her family claim this is untrue.

CCTV and bank transactions: During the extradition appeal, Ben Watson, the British lawyer representing the South African government, claimed that Dewani had withdrawn £1,000 cash on his Mastercard before the murder. Watson said that CCTV footage also showed Dewani meeting Tongo several times before the murder, and again afterwards when they appear to exchange money. Dewani's family insists Dewani was innocently paying Tongo for his services as a taxi driver.

Witnesses: Qwabe and Tongo have agreed to testify against Dewani as part of their plea bargain. Some of Anni's relatives, including her cousin Sneha, are also likely to be called as witnesses. Leopold Leisser, a German escort based in the UK, may also appear as a witness for the state. He claims Dewani told him he needed to "find a way out of getting married" and that he would be "disowned" by his family if he attempted to break off his engagement. However, Dewani's family told The Independent there is clear evidence to refute Leisser's claims and also insisted there was no pre-nuptial agreement, no dowry and no pressure from the family to marry.

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