Chef, 46, jailed for 22 years after strangling wife, cramming her in suitcase and throwing body in Thames

The killing was witnessed by Begum’s online boyfriend via a video call from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where he was living.

Rahman then stuffed her body into a suitcase while she was either dead or unconscious and was caught on CCTV dumping the suitcase in the River Lea, which runs through east London to the Thames. The suitcase containing her decomposed body was found washed up on the riverbank by a mudlark 10 days later.

Following a trial, Rahman, formerly of Bridgwater in Somerset, was found guilty of murder and assaulting Begum having admitted preventing her lawful and decent burial. Justice Bennathan jailed restaurant worker Rahman for life with a minimum term of 22 years.

In a televised sentencing, the senior judge told Rahman: "Suma Begum was a lively, attractive young woman and a devoted mother. She was kind to you even when she decided, as was her right, that she no longer wanted to be your wife.

"She had dreamed of a new, different life with a man about her own age, which dreams you stopped on April 29 last year when you very deliberately killed her.

"Sadly these courts often have to deal with men who have murdered their wives or partners, but what you did was more shocking even than most of those awful crimes. Within moments of strangling Begum you folded her body into a suitcase and threw it into the Thames basin, hoping it would never be found."

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In a victim impact statement on behalf of Begum’s family, her half-brother Abdul Amin described Rahman as an "evil man".

He said: "The reason this happened is because Aminan is a selfish and jealous man who could not stand the fact that his wife no longer wanted to be in a relationship with him."

Reacting to victim-blaming comments on social media, he said: "No matter where you are from or what culture you are from, a woman should never be killed by their husband or partner and no child should have to lose a parent in this way."

Previously the trial heard how Begum’s boyfriend, Shahin Miah, 24, had recorded an online video of the events leading to her death on the night of April 29 last year, which was later handed to Begum’s mother and police. Giving evidence, Miah had sobbed in court as he described a video call from Rahman in which he threatened to kill Begum, who was on the bed in the background.

Speaking through an interpreter, 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 Miah: "Look, I have killed (Begum) and now you get ready."

Miah told jurors: "I saw that frothing was coming out of Suma’s mouth and he showed me on the video and he was swearing at me."

Giving evidence, Rahman accepted killing Begum but claimed he never intended to harm her and had acted in the defence of one of his children – a claim rejected by the prosecution.

The court heard that Begum had married the defendant in an arranged Islamic ceremony over the phone in 2019. In 2020, she travelled from Bangladesh to live with the restaurant worker in Somerset and they had two children.

A year later, Begum met Miah via social media app TikTok, later moving on to WhatsApp. About seven or eight months into their "intimate, sexual" online relationship, Miah found out she was married to Rahman, he said. He said he told Rahman of the relationship, but the lovers stayed together and Begum remained married.

Prosecutor Jocelyn Ledward KC had told jurors: "It is clear this young woman 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."