A person has been convicted of strangling his spouse whereas her on-line boyfriend was on a video hyperlink, and throwing her physique hidden in a suitcase right into a tributary of the River Thames.
Aminan Rahman, 46, was discovered responsible by a jury on the Previous Bailey of murdering Suma Begum, 24, in a flat in east London on the night time of 29 April final 12 months.
The killing was witnessed by Begum’s two youngsters, aged 4 months and two years, and her on-line boyfriend by way of a video name from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the place he was residing.
Rahman was caught on CCTV dumping the suitcase within the River Lea in east London. It was discovered washed up 10 days later containing her decomposed physique.
The courtroom heard that Begum’s boyfriend, Shahin Miah, 24, had recorded a web-based video of the occasions resulting in her loss of life, which was later handed to police.
Miah sobbed in courtroom as he described a video name from Rahman through which Rahman threatened to kill Begum, who was on the mattress within the background. Rahman additionally threatened to kill Miah, who was within the UAE on the time, the courtroom heard.
Talking by means of an interpreter, Miah mentioned: “She wanted to run away and he then grabbed her throat.” There have been “three screaming sounds” earlier than the video froze and nothing extra may very well be seen after Rahman’s preliminary lunge.
In a second video name from Rahman that night time, the defendant advised Miah: “Look, I have killed [Begum] and now you get ready.”
Begum married Rahman, a restaurant employee, in an organized Islamic ceremony over the telephone in 2019. In 2020, she travelled from Bangladesh to reside with him and so they had two youngsters.
A 12 months later, Begum met Miah by way of TikTok, later transferring on to WhatsApp, and so they had an “intimate, sexual” on-line relationship, the courtroom heard.
The prosecutor Jocelyn Ledward KC had advised jurors it was clear she was “no longer happy in her marriage, she was fairly openly in a relationship with another man, and she had expressed the desire to leave the defendant, something about which neither he nor her family were happy”.
“But whether he was motivated by rage, shame, or pure jealousy, or a more complex mix of cultural expectations and emotions, may not matter,” Ledward mentioned.
Rahman had disposed of her physique inside minutes.
He accepted that he killed Begum, however claimed he by no means meant to hurt her and had acted within the defence of the older baby, whom he claimed Begum had threatened to kill. The prosecution rejected his declare.
Rahman had additionally been accused of attacking Begum in February final 12 months.
Mr Justice Bennathan remanded Rahman into custody to be sentenced.DCI Kelly Allen, of the Metropolitan police, mentioned detectives analysed tons of of hours of CCTV to hint Rahman’s actions earlier than and after the homicide.
“We also managed to retrieve and download the full video call that Rahman made to Suma’s believed boyfriend. This further proved he killed her in a jealous rage,” she mentioned.
