Husband, 47, called his wife’s lover while strangling her before cramming her body in suitcase and dumping it in river, court hears

A jealous husband called his wife’s lover as he strangled her in front of their child before stuffing her body in a suitcase and dumping it in the river, a court heard.

Aminan Rahman, 47, attacked 24-year-old Suma Begum at a flat in Docklands, east Londonon the night of April 29, 2023 after finding out she was having an affair with a man her own age.

Rahman was on a video call with Ms Begum’s friend Shahin Miah, who was living in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates at the time, and threatened him when he attacked his wife, the Old Bailey heard.

Mr Miah told the court that Rahman also threatened to harm his two-year-old son, who was present in the room when the ordeal unfolded.

CCTV footage from later in the evening, shown to jurors, shows Rahman pulling a suitcase outside the apartment building before pushing it over a fence into the River Lea.

Suma Begum who was attacked by her jealous husband in a flat in Docklands, East London, on the night of April 29, 2023, after he found out she was having an affair with a man her own age

Rahman denies murder and a previous attack on Ms Begum on February 6, 2023.

Ms Begum had moved to Britain from Bangladesh in 2020 after marrying Rahman over the phone. Their children were two and four months old when she died.

Prosecutor Jocelyn Ledward QC said other tenants living in the three-bedroom flat started hearing a child screaming at around 11.30pm on April 29.

Around the same time, Mr Miah received a WhatsApp video call from Rahman

Mrs Ledward said: ‘The suspect is sitting on the bed, with the deceased hidden under the bedspread.

‘Later she emerges, holding her head, with her young child next to her on the bed, and tries to comfort her.

‘The suspect appears to be becoming increasingly agitated, angry and physically aggressive.

‘The suspect is holding the phone and making an aggressive gesture towards the deceased.

‘The defendant grabs her and a struggle ensues. [The two-year-old] is present everywhere.

“Mr Miah could see that Suma was lying on the bed and covering her face and everything [the two-year-old] was nearby.

‘Mr Miah said that during that conversation the defendant made a number of threats, that he would attack Suma and put the blame on Mr Miah, that he [the two-year-old] and then come to Bangladesh and attack Mr Miah.

“He told Mr. Miah that Suma didn’t want him. She said she did.

‘He had the impression that Suma wanted to leave, but the defendant grabbed her by the neck.

‘She was screaming and couldn’t talk. The video feed froze for the last 34 seconds of the call before the line disconnected completely.”

Mr Miah’s screen recorded some parts of the video call and the video was played to the jury.

Video of a second call showed Ms Begum dead or dying with her two-year-old sitting next to her.

Rahman put the phone on the floor and continued to talk angrily to Mr Miah as he put on some outdoor clothing, the court heard.

He told him: ‘I killed Suma’ and said: ‘I killed your mother and I am coming to kill you,’ the court heard.

He had asked Mr Miah to refer to Ms Begum as his mother during the conversation, Ms Ledward said.

CCTV footage shows Rahman leaving the apartment building at 12.01 am on April 20 with his two-year-old son in his arms and a large black suitcase behind him.

He walked to an adjacent apartment building that overlooked the River Lea.

The Old Bailey (pictured) heard that at the time of the alleged attack, Rahman was on a video call with Ms Begum’s friend Shahin Miah, who lived in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates.

CCTV footage shows him putting his child down, lifting the suitcase onto the metal barrier and pushing him into the water.

He then walked back home with his child.

CCTV footage shows the defendant pulling a suitcase outside the apartment building, to the railing above the nearby river, and pushing the suitcase over the railing into the water below.

‘The suitcase was found by a member of the public just over ten days later, washed up downstream on the riverbank.

“It contained the body of Suma Begum.

“The prosecution’s case is that the accused assaulted Suma Begum, most likely killing her on the spot, but at least incapacitating her, before putting her in the suitcase and dumping the suitcase in the river.

‘If she wasn’t already dead by then, she would inevitably have drowned. The accuser claims he did all this with the intention of killing her or at least causing her serious harm.

“He is therefore accused and put on trial for the murder of Suma Begum.”

At 12.20pm Rahman left the flat again with a buggy containing both children, the court heard.

He came across his relative who owned the flat and who had been called there after the housemates heard a disturbance.

Rahman told her he had an argument and was leaving, jurors were told.

Rahman and Ms Begum had an Islamic wedding arranged by their families over the phone in 2019.

But to enter Britain, Ms Begum married another man in Bangladesh who sponsored her visa application.

Mrs Ledward said: ‘Up until her death in April 2023, the marriage between Mrs Begum and the defendant had not been going well for some time.

‘Ms Begum had started a relationship with a man closer to her own age, Shahin Miah.

‘Mr Miah was also from Bangladesh but was living in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates in April 2023, and their contact was online – through messages, texts and calls, including video calls.

‘Mr Miah says they were intimate through video calls and hoped to be together in due course.

“Suma was open about this relationship with Shahin Miah on her TikTok account, and certainly as far as Mr Miah was concerned, both the suspect and Suma Begum’s family were aware of the relationship.

‘There was talk of divorce, but also of the fact that Mr Miah would no longer see Suma Begum.

‘According to Mr Miah, the suspect was also not happy with the relationship and threatened him a number of times.’

At one point the couple moved to Leeds, with Rahman telling a friend that he was ‘out of control’ of Mrs Begum as she no longer wanted to live with him and wanted to be with ‘someone else, someone she loved’.

He said they moved to Leeds so her uncle could keep her under control and ‘imposed her responsibilities to her children’.

On February 6, 2023, Ms Begum sent videos to her boyfriend via WhatsApp showing scratches on her neck, the court heard.

She said Rahman “came to kill her” and “lost her breath” and “almost killed me around my neck”, jurors heard.

She texted Rahman saying she was blocking him and accused her of hitting her asking ‘how can you be so cruel’.

Rahman responded that she was afraid of her and that he had left because she was about to hit him, the court heard.

On April 24, 2023, the couple and children moved to London and stayed in a flat with a relative named Bibi Begum.

On April 26, Rahman sent a video to a relative on WhatsApp that showed bleach being poured into a shot glass and a voice speaking in Bengali threatening to drink the bleach and kill an unborn child.

Ms Ledward said it could be suggested at the trial that Ms Begum made the video when she was pregnant with her second child.

Rahman told relatives he had visited lawyers in the days before the murder, the court heard.

He first came to Britain about 20 years ago and lived in Somerset, where he worked in an Indian restaurant.

Rahman denies murder and assault. He was assisted in court by a Sylheti interpreter, a Bengali dialect.

The process continues.