Millionaire British businessman Shrien Dewani pleaded not guilty to charges of murdering his bride while on honeymoon in Cape Town, as his long-awaited trial began Monday.

Speaking from the dock Dewani said he was “not guilty” of charges of murder, kidnapping and obstructing justice.

The trial will likely feature claims that Dewani, a gay man desperate to escape an arranged marriage hired hitmen to kill his bride on their Cape Town honeymoon.

Businessman Shrien Dewani finally appeared in court after losing a three-year extradition fight in Britain and was ruled mentally fit to stand trial.

He was sent back to South Africa in April to answer charges over the murder of his Swedish-born bride Anni (nee Hindocha), who was shot dead on November 13, 2010, aged 28.

Dewani, now 34, is accused of orchestrating the hit by hiring three South Africans to kill her.

He denies the charge and claims that he and his bride were hijacked at gunpoint as they drove through Cape Town’s impoverished Gugulethu township in a taxi.

Dewani escaped unharmed, but his wife’s body was found in the abandoned car the next day.

The prosecution is expected to argue that Dewani is gay and plotted to have his wife killed to escape an arranged marriage that he was pushed into by his family.

Local media have reported that one of the main witnesses for the prosecution will be a sado-masochism “master” from Britain who will claim that Dewani paid him for sex.

Gay prostitute Leopold Leisser is said to have claimed in a statement to British police that Dewani had told him he was getting married to a “lovely girl”, but he needed “to find a way out of it”.

The three South Africans have been tried and convicted and are serving jail sentences of between 18 years and life for their role in Anni Dewani’s death.

Taxi driver Zola Tongo admitted guilt in a plea bargain along with another man, Mziwamadoda Qwabe. The two were sentenced to 18 and 25 years in prison respectively.

A third man, Xolile Mngeni, was later found guilty of firing the shot that killed Anni Dewani and was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Tongo’s claim that Shrien Dewani had offered him 15,000 rand ($1,300, 1,000 euros) to have Anni killed is expected to play a key role in the prosecution’s arguments.

The case has angered many in South Africa who accuse Dewani of callously using the country’s reputation for violent crime to murder his wife in the belief that he would get away with it.

– Justice and closure –

Anni’s family said it has been “a period of torture” since her death.

“All I ask for is the full story and justice,” Anni’s father Vinod Hindocha told reporters in Cape Town on Sunday.