Shrien Dewani, who was accused of killing his wife while they were on honeymoon in South Africa.
Judge Jeanette Traverso called the state's case "weak" and said evidence fell "far below" the standard needed for conviction.
It took years for prosecutors to bring him to trial over the killing of his wife, Anni.
Dewani, 34, was accused of hiring hit men to kill her in Cape Town in November 2010.
He has repeatedly denied orchestrating the killing, pleading not guilty at the start of the trial in October.
South African authorities were locked in a three-year court battle to get Dewani extradited from the UK to face trial.
But after the prosecution put forward its witnesses, the defense sought to have the charges dropped, citing a lack of evidence.
Differences seen in witnesses' accounts
Traverso found there was
no reasonable chance a court would convict Shrien Dewani unless he took
the stand and incriminated himself, CNN legal analyst Kelly Phelps said
Monday.
Other witnesses
contradicted each other and could not be taken at face value because
they were accomplices to the killing of Anni Dewani, Phelps explained.
The killing took place
during a taxi ride through a township on the edge of Cape Town, just
over two weeks after the couple's wedding.
The taxi driver, Zola
Tongo, confessed within weeks of the bride's death that he had hired two
men to kill her. In a plea deal with South African authorities, he said
Dewani paid him to carry out the killing and to make it look as though
the couple were the victims of a carjacking.
Tongo was subsequently
sentenced to 18 years in prison for his part in the killing. His two
accomplices also received lengthy sentences for their role in the crime.
One of them died of brain cancer in October, The Guardian reported.
Family hoping for answers
Dewani, a care home
owner, returned to the United Kingdom after his wife's death. He avoided
extradition to South Africa on mental health grounds during a lengthy
court battle, but he was eventually sent back in April to face trial.
What's life like in a South African prison?
Psychiatric experts had
said that he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and
depression and that he'd tried to take his life. Before his extradition,
he was held at a secure mental health unit in southwest England.
But in August, he was declared fit to stand trial after undergoing psychiatric observation, according to South African media.
An indictment in the
case said he faces charges including conspiracy to commit kidnapping,
robbery with aggravating circumstances, murder and kidnapping, the South
African Press Association reported.
Dewani, from Bristol in
southwest England, has said his wife was the victim of a carjacking and
denies any involvement in the killing.
Source:CNN
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