A man faces life in jail for strangling his wife in front of her TikTok lover and throwing a suitcase containing her body into a tributary of the River Thames.
Aminan Rahman, 46, was found guilty by a jury at the Old Bailey on Wednesday of murdering Suma Begum, 24, in an east London flat on 29 April last year.
Ms Begum’s two children witnessed the killing, as did her online boyfriend via a video call from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where he was living.
Rahman then stuffed Ms Begum into a suitcase while she was either dead or unconscious and was caught on CCTV dumping it in the River Lea, which runs through east London to the Thames.
The suitcase containing her decomposed body was found washed up on the river bank by a mudlark 10 days later.
The court heard Ms Begum’s boyfriend, Shahin Miah, 24, had recorded an online video of the events leading to her death, which were later handed to police.
Mr Miah sobbed in court as he described a video call from Rahman in which he threatened to kill Ms Begum.
Speaking through an interpreter, Mr Miah said: “She wanted to run away and he then grabbed her throat.”
There were “three screaming sounds” before the video froze and nothing more could be seen after Rahman’s initial lunge.
In a second video call from Rahman that night, the defendant told Mr Miah: “Look, I have killed [Ms Begum] and now you get ready.”
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The court heard Ms Begum had married the defendant in an arranged Islamic ceremony over the phone in 2019.
Giving evidence, Rahman accepted killing Ms Begum but claimed he never intended to harm her and had acted in the defence of the older child, claiming Ms Begum had threatened to kill the two-year-old and had thrown the child against a wall – a claim the prosecution rejected.
Rahman had denied murder and assaulting Ms Begum by beating but had pleaded guilty to preventing the lawful and decent burial of her body.
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Following a month-long trial, a jury deliberated for four hours and 27 minutes to find him guilty of all the charges against him.
Mr Justice Bennathan remanded Rahman, formerly of Bridgwater in Somerset, into custody to be sentenced on 31 July.
