Aminan Rahman, 47, denies murdering 24-year-old Suma Begum, who was reported missing on April 30, 2023. Her body, in a suitcase, was washed up at Thamesmead in southeast London 10 days later.
The jury was shown two short clips from the videocall on Friday at the start of the trial.
Prosecutor Jocelyn Ledward, KC warned the jury: “Some of you will find it distressing. It does show Suma either dead or dying.”
She said that not long after the call Mr. Rahman left the apartment in Poplar where he allegedly murdered Ms. Begum, with his young children.
Ms. Ledward said: “Within 15–20 minutes, CCTV footage shows the defendant pulling a suitcase outside the block of flats, to the railings above the river which was nearby, pushing the suitcase over the railings, and into the water below.
“The suitcase was found by a member of the public just over 10 days later, washed up on the riverbank downstream. It contained the body of Suma Begum,” she added.
Ms. Ledward said Ms. Begum and Mr. Rahman were both from the Sylhet region of Bangladesh and neither of them spoke much English.
She said Mr. Rahman and Ms. Begum had undergone a nikkah, or Islamic marriage, over the telephone in 2019 while he was in London and she was in Bangladesh. The union was an arranged marriage, blessed by their families.
Victim Arrived Using ‘Sham Marriage’ Visa
Ms. Ledward said, “It may be, therefore, that Suma Begum’s marriage to Mohammed Abdul Khader Miah was a sham marriage, entered into for the purposes of circumventing immigration laws and to enable her to travel to the UK.”As soon as she arrived in Britain, Ms. Begum moved to Bridgwater in Somerset, where Mr. Rahman worked in an Indian restaurant.
Ms. Ledward said he introduced her as his wife and the couple had two children, the last of whom was born in December 2022.
But she said the marriage was in trouble and Ms. Begum had “started a relationship with a man her own age,” Shahin Miah, a Bangladeshi national who was living and working in Abu Dhabi.
She said the couple had never met but contacted each other online and in videocalls, during which they “engaged in sexual activity.”
Ms. Ledward said Ms. Begum was open about this relationship on her TikTok account and eventually her husband and her family found out.
Mr. Rahman took her to live in Leeds, in the hope an uncle could “control” her, said the prosecutor.
But on April 24, 2023 the couple came to London and lived with a friend in Poplar.
Around midnight on April 29, she said, Mr. Rahman videocalled Mr. Miah in Abu Dhabi.
Ms. Ledward said: “Mr. Miah could see that Suma was on the bed, covering her face, and that her son was nearby. Mr. Miah said that during the course of that call, the defendant made a number of threats, that he would assault Suma and put the blame on Mr. Miah, that he would assault her son as well, and then come to Bangladesh and assault Mr. Miah.”
She said Mr. Rahman grabbed her neck, she screamed, and was unable to talk.
Victim’s Abu Dhabi Lover Recorded Videocalls
She said Mr. Miah managed to record the videocalls but without the audio, and it was these clips which were played to the jury.Ms. Ledward said Mr. Rahman then rang Mr. Miah back, again on a videocall.
She said: “The defendant told him ‘I have murdered Suma,’ and showed him Suma lying down, with ‘bubbles coming out of her mouth and nose.’”
Her 2-year-old son was standing nearby, crying.
The prosecutor said Mr. Rahman had told Mr. Miah to refer to Suma as his “mother” and then said: “I have killed your mother and I am coming to kill you,” before angrily pointing towards him.
The trial is set to last several weeks.
