The trial of Nai Yin Xue, accused of murdering his wife and abandoning his daughter, begins today in the High Court at Auckland.
The three-week trial for the 55-year-old will include witnesses from Australia and the United States.
Xue's wife An An Liu, 27, was found dead in the boot
of her husband's car outside their home in Mt Roskill.
The Crown alleges Xue murdered Liu by strangling her with a tie about September 11, 2007, a few days before he abandoned his 3-year-old daughter, Qian Xun Xue, at a Melbourne train station before fleeing to the US. Qian was nicknamed "Pumpkin" by police as they tried to find her parents.
Xue was the subject of an international manhunt for nearly six months before he was arrested in Chamblee, on the outskirts of Atlanta, Georgia.
Xue has denied the charges. Last year he applied to the High Court to be released so he could earn money to pay his legal bills. Legal Services had refused to pay the fees because it suspected he had money hidden in an overseas account.
