Guilty: Smethwick man, 50, murdered his fiancée at her home
A Smethwick man has today been found guilty of choking his fiancée to death before staging a fake burglary in a bid to put police off his trail.
Ameen Thabet, aged 50, murdered Najeeba Al-Ariqy, 47, at her home in Sutton Road, Aston, Birmingham, on March 23 last year.
He visited her home around lunchtime that day and then returned on the evening, when he claimed to have found her collapsed. Thabet also staged a burglary to cover up his tracks.
Thabet will be sentenced on Thursday by judge, Melbourne Inman QC, who told him: "The sentence I will have to pass by is life."
He was unanimously found guilty of her murder after jurors deliberated for just one hour and 52 minutes.
Summing up the evidence before Thabet was found guilty, the judge told Birmingham Crown Court: "There is no dispute that someone killed Najeeba Al-Ariqy by deliberately exerting pressure on her neck until she died.
"The prosecution say it was the defendant and then he left her house having made it look like a burglary had been carried out."
The pair had been married twice before and Thabet had bought Mrs Al-Ariqy a wedding dress the day before she died.
They were also planning a two-week honeymoon in Turkey following their marriage. He was married to another woman at the time.
Mr Inman said the prosecution relied on "circumstantial evidence" to prove Thabet was guilty.
Coverage of the case:
Thabet arrived at her home at 11.55am after parking in Leatherhead nearby and walking to her front door.
Between 8.32am that day and 11.57am, police said there 45 outgoing messages from Ms Al-Ariqy's phone, but there was none any more once Thabet arrived.
Prosecutors alleged that the defendant staged texts between his phone and hers during that visit.
Her phone never read a message after 12.41pm, the time when Thabet left her property. He sent her a text two minutes after leaving, at 12.43pm, in which he said "I love you".
Thabet said he then arrived at the property just after 6pm on March 23 to find her lying on her back.
He said a scarf was wrapped around her neck and there was splatters of blood by her head and neck.
Thabet then called the emergency services and carried out CPR. She was pronounced dead at the scene at 6.18pm.
Unresponsive
An ambulance technician, called David Arnold, gave evidence and said he found her "unresponsive" and "incredibly cold".
A post mortem revealed that Ms Al-Ariqy died from pressure being applied to her neck.
Thabet was initially interviewed later that evening by police as an important witness before he was arrested on suspicion of her murder.
The interview was read out to jurors during the trial, in which Thabet said: "I opened it [the front door] slowly and she was lying down on her back and her hands were open.
"Her face was blue and her tongue was out.
"It was just a shock to me. I called 999 straight away. I was panicked and stuttering on the phone.
"I tried to keep my composure. I said 'I think it is a crime scene'.
"The woman [call operator] said 'Is she breathing?' I put my hand over her chest but it was not moving. She was out cold.
"There was blood splatter by her body. There was some by her head. She had a scarf wrapped around her head. I moved that to clear her passage.
"They [the call operator] put me through to the ambulance service. They said to me 'try to do CPR'. I said 'I'm a bit reluctant to do anything.
"I think she is dead'. I did everything she asked me to do. I pushed in her chest hard, and kept pushing."
Clothing
During the trial, Thabet's defence counsel David Walbank QC asked him: "You know the prosecution's case is you got her in an arm lock and throttled her. Were you capable of doing that?"
He replied: "Not at all."
In the police interview, Thabet initially told officers he had not changed his clothing after visiting Ms Al-Ariqy at lunchtime.
But CCTV showed him wearing a different shirt hours later.
At first, Thabet denied this and then said he had the shirt on "back to front".
He later claimed he had changed his top due to Ms Al-Ariqy sprinkling holy water on him, as a gesture of good luck for their marriage, and he had to dispose of that top in a canal or river afterwards.
Thabet and Mrs Al-Ariqy secretly got married in December 2018. Mrs Al-Ariqy became unhappy with their marriage as it was "not fully open" and asked the defendant for a divorce, to which he agreed.
Jurors were told they got married again before Mrs Al-Ariqy asked for a second divorce in September 2019.
Thabet denied being told by Ms Al-Ariqy on the morning before she died that she would marry another man from Bahrain.
Asked during the trial if Ms Al-Ariqy had told him anything that had made him want to murder her that day on the morning of March 23 last year, he said: "No."
The defendant told police the couple's relationship was "amazing" and loving.
Thabet, of West Park Road, will be sentenced at a later date.
