Meet, Marry, Murder - Season 1, Episode 2 - Khatun - Full Episode | Forensic Files

NARRATOR: Muhammad Dilawer Miah had been married for 33 days. A man who lived for his faith, settling
down with a devout Muslim wife was everything he'd ever wanted. PETER BLEKSLEY: Muhammad was a gentle, kind, much liked man.
NARRATOR: His new wife was Mahmuda Khatun, a woman who like him had arrived in London
from Bangladesh as a child. CLAIRE MACKINTOSH: They got on well. They had similar interests.
And they started to look forward to a life together. NARRATOR: But less than five weeks after their wedding,
the groom was found lying in a pool of blood in the hallway of the marital home.
The body was lying there where it had fallen. The paramedics came in but it was clear that life was extinct.
PETER BLEKSLEY: He was quiet, gentle, a hardworking man. And nobody could think of a reason
why anybody would want to murder him. NARRATOR: What lay behind the ugly murder of a man just married and who seemed to have
no enemies in the world? [music playing] Summer 2007. A hot, sunny day in bustling Bethnal Green, East London.
Muhammad Dilawer Miah marries Mahmuda Khatun in a marriage arranged by their families.
150 guests attend the wedding. CLAIRE MACKINTOSH: Everyone who knew Miah spoke of a quiet, unassuming man who
lived for his marriage, his work, and his faith. EMMA KENNY: She likes him. He's a nice guy.
And so she agrees to get engaged to him because she sees him as a safe bet and somebody that she hopes in the end
she'll grow to love. NARRATOR: Fast approaching 30, it was time for both of them
to settle down. Perhaps to think about starting a family. CLAIRE MACKINTOSH: He was in his late 20s.
And the pair seemed a really good match, both on paper and in practice. They got on well.
They had similar interests. And they started to look forward to a life together NARRATOR: Born in Bangladesh, Mahmuda Khatun
had moved to London with her family at the age of six. Her father was a respected local religious leader.
But she and her siblings had been allowed to lead a relatively Western life. Mahmuda had attended a local girls school before studying
business at college. But she was soon to discover that that didn't mean she was free from the expectations
of her family and community. JO SIDHU: When she was about 21, she was married by arrangement to a man
that her family had chosen for her. NARRATOR: The marriage was not a success. CLAIRE MACKINTOSH: Mahmuda claimed
that her new husband was both physically and psychologically abusive towards her.
And for his part, he claimed that Mahmuda never instigated any affection or responded to him in any way
during their marriage. NARRATOR: He claimed that Mahmuda made no effort with the marriage and always seemed
to be going home to her family or chatting on the telephone with her friends. There was no love.
She had no feelings for her husband. And in fact, the frustration that she felt in that marriage
boiled over. Her husband became very angry with her. Felt that she wasn't being an obedient wife.
And he'd beat her. She complained to her family about the marriage. She wanted out.
She tolerated the abuse for a period of time. And eventually, she managed to persuade her mom and dad
that she should have a divorce. With great reluctance, they agreed. NARRATOR: Freed from the shackles
of a loveless marriage, Mahmuda found herself living the life of a single, independent young woman
once again. Life was good. JO SIDHU: For several years after the end of her first marriage, she had her freedom.
She was able to complete her education, to get qualifications, and lead an independent existence
as far as she could with a really interesting job. CLAIRE MACKINTOSH: Soon after, Mahmuda moved out of the family
home and into a place called Fidelis House in Liverpool Street, which was a hostel designed for people waiting
for local authority housing. JO SIDHU: She was a working young woman in London. CLAIRE MACKINTOSH: Things were going
really well by this point. Mahmuda had started working in an optician's as an optician's assistant.
Her career was going well. She was promoted to branch manager. NARRATOR: This was all Mahmuda had
ever wanted, the opportunity to choose her own path. JO SIDHU: She'd been a girl brought up with expectations.
Expectations that she'd be a good Muslim girl. That she would be dutiful to her parents.
That she'd be obedient and loyal to her family. But she wanted something else from her life.
NARRATOR: The single life that wasn't to last. Her parents, deeply religious Bangladeshi Muslims,
had other plans. JO SIDHU: As the years passed, her parents again prevailed upon her and said
to her that she couldn't remain as a divorcee in their community. That eventually, she would have to settle down with someone
from a similar background. CLAIRE MACKINTOSH: Her parents began looking again for another husband.
They really wanted her to settle down. Perhaps, start a family. EMMA KENNY: The women who were growing up
in strict Muslim culture, it's incredibly powerful to have your parents wanting you to marry somebody.
Because essentially, you think of the world in a community context. Making sure that you don't bring shame on your family
is very powerful. JO SIDHU: And for a while she was able to persuade them to hold off.
CLAIRE MACKINTOSH: They weren't going to force Mahmuda into anything. This was an arranged marriage but by no means a forced one.
In fact, Mahmuda was able to reject six or seven potential suitors. NARRATOR: Eventually, Mahmuda was
introduced to Muhammad Dilawer Miah, known to his friends as Amin. He was a quiet, hard working man who worked as a kitchen porter
at a casino on an upmarket street in London's West End. Like Mahmuda, he'd been born in Bangladesh.
The youngest of four children, he'd come to the UK in his teens, followed a few years later
by his older sister Sader. He prayed five times a day and was a regular worshipper
at his local mosque. He was known to be serious and devout. It was said that he had no enemies, quarreled with no one.
Meanwhile, friends were confused that Mahmuda Khatun had agreed to marriage with Amin.
Perhaps, she simply felt that she could no longer say no to her parents. Time eventually ran out for her and she had to say yes.
She did however, feel some degree of warmth towards Muhammad. He was the best of the bunch, she thought.
And she felt that maybe in time she could learn to love him. NARRATOR: Mahmuda had agreed to give marriage another go.
But was it what she really wanted? Her barrister, Jo Sidhu, believes she was responding to overwhelming pressure
from the people around her. JO SIDHU: She made an effort. She realized that she had expectations on her
from her family and from the community, and she tried to meet those expectations.
She had to settle for something, and he at least seemed to be a person who was going to be kind to her.
NARRATOR: A dowry of 10,000 pounds was agreed. Amin paid 4,000 pounds to Mahmuda's parents,
with the rest to follow. Mahmuda moved her belongings out of her bachelorette pad
in Liverpool Street, and made the journey 2 miles east to Amin's flat in Bethnal Green.
It was a place he'd redecorated especially to please his new wife. Amin was happy to settle down.
He wanted Mahmuda to be happy. And he went to a great deal of effort to make sure that their marriage would work.
CLAIRE MACKINTOSH: Miah's employers had paid for them to go on a short honeymoon in Cheshire.
He'd even changed his hours so that he could spend more time with his new bride.
NARRATOR: But before their wedding gifts were even unwrapped, Amin made a shocking discovery
about his new wife. PETER BLEKSLEY: There were complications in the relationship between Mahmuda and Muhammad
because she was communicating an awful lot with a man that she worked with. A man called Nasser Hussain.
JO SIDHU: When she was working in an optician's, she met a guy. There was a relationship that developed between them.
CLAIRE MACKINTOSH: Mahmuda and Hussain had had text conversations and calls numerous times a day.
An average of 10 times a day. This contact had carried on right the way up to the wedding and beyond.
PETER BLEKSLEY: On Mahmuda's wedding day, she exchanged texts and calls with Nasser Hussain.
On her honeymoon, she exchanged texts and calls with Nasser Hussein. And in the 33 days of her marriage to Muhammad,
Nasser Hussain and Mahmuda contacted one another 395 times. JO SIDHU: No one ever knew the full depth.
But undoubtedly, she felt an emotional attachment towards him. EMMA KENNY: If you're texting a male when you're
on your wedding day, it means that you have some kind of intense relationship or some attraction to that person.
Imagine the way you'd feel. You've got married to somebody else, but you're actually interested in another party.
PETER BLEKSLEY: Not perhaps the behavior you would expect of a devoted wife, should we say.
NARRATOR: Even worse, Mahmuda made little attempt to hide her friendship with Nasser
from her new husband. CLAIRE MACKINTOSH: He was becoming increasingly perturbed by the numerous late-night calls
that Mahmuda was making on a hidden mobile phone. In fact, Miah had confronted her about these calls
and she'd refused to tell him who she was talking to and why. He'd even said to Mahmuda, look, if-- if you're seeing someone
I'll be devastated, but I understand. Let's-- let's call it a day. I'll go back to my family.
You go back to yours. He was even prepared to give her that dignity and to end the relationship.
But he said Mahmuda wouldn't even talk to him about it. She said, it's my private business.
It's none of yours. NARRATOR: Why had Mahmuda married Amin when she so clearly was besotted
with her workmate Nasser? She's never revealed the answer to that question. Perhaps Nasser didn't fit in with her parents plans.
He was a Muslim, but from a Pakistani background. His family and community would, in all likelihood,
have been unknown to Mahmuda's. JO SIDHU: Mahmuda had tried every way she could to persuade
her family that she should be allowed to pursue her dreams, but they were snuffed out.
The family itself was under pressure from the wider community to raise their children
in a way that would meet the approval of people who were quite conservative in the East End of London.
Mahmuda had no option, she felt. NARRATOR: Nasser wasn't the only problem. JO SIDHU: When Mahmuda married Amin Miah,
she tried to give it a go. She made an effort. But within a matter of days she realized this is a man that she
simply couldn't relate to. EMMA KENNY: Mahmuda claimed that Miah had objected to her
working and having a career. NARRATOR: Amin wanted Mahmuda to quit her job, but this was something she was not prepared to accept.
JO SIDHU: He wanted an obedient wife. A woman that would cook and clean from for him
and bring up their children. She wanted balance. She wanted fairness. She wanted a life in which both she and her husband
could respect each other. But it was only a few days before she realized that was just a pipe dream.
CLAIRE MACKINTOSH: It was clear that in the very short time that the couple had been married,
things were already going horribly wrong. NARRATOR: But she'd made her choice. She'd married Amin.
And now she had to see it through. JO SIDHU: Mahmuda had no option. EMMA KENNY: She'd already failed in one marriage, which
means she was a much higher statistic anyway to fail in a second. JO SIDHU: And there was nothing else
that she felt she could do because no second divorce would be accepted. NARRATOR: Would Mahmuda learn to put aside
her ambitions and her desires? It seemed to be her only choice. EMMA KENNY: It's sad to think that the most important thing
for her was finding somebody that she may grow to love, because it suggests that she felt
that there was no other option. JO SIDHU: Mahmuda felt tormented about this second marriage.
It was a big mistake. She should have said no. NARRATOR: Bangladeshi-born Amin Miah
thought that he'd found his life partner in his new wife Mahmuda Khatun. Their East London wedding was a cause for hope and celebration
for both of their families. But just a month into their marriage, tragedy strikes.
CLAIRE MACKINTOSH: The couple had only been married for four weeks, when the police were called to a flat in Bethnal
Green on the 9th of August. PETER BLEKSLEY: The police received a phone call. She was claiming that she was locked out of her flat
but that she could smell something burning on the stove. CLAIRE MACKINTOSH: She'd left her keys at work.
She couldn't get into the flat. And she couldn't get hold of her husband. Worse, she'd looked through the letterbox
and seen blood on the walls. JO SIDHU: Mahmuda contacted her two brothers and told them that she needed their help because she
couldn't get into her flat. The brothers came. They tried to help her. NARRATOR: When police arrived at Hadleigh House,
Mahmuda was panic-stricken, distraught. Her brothers were almost as distressed. The siblings had apparently just made
a horrific discovery that confirmed their worst fears for Amin. This is the story they told.
JO SIDHU: All three looked through the letterbox, and they saw Amin's body lying in the hallway blood-soaked.
There was blood everywhere. NARRATOR: The flat was silent. Mahmuda and her brothers could see that Amin wasn't moving.
Arcs of blood covered the ceiling in the walls of the hallway. PETER BLEKSLEY: When the police arrived they couldn't
get through the door either. So they called the fire brigade. And they forced the door open.
And what they found was Miah dead on the floor with a knife wound. PETER BLEKSLEY: He'd been stabbed once in the chest.
The television remote control was near to his hand. CLAIRE MACKINTOSH: He'd clearly been
disturbed watching television. This was an attack that was brutal and came out of the blue.
JO SIDHU: The body was lying there where it had fallen. The paramedics came in but it was
clear that life was extinct. There was nothing they could do to save his life because he was already gone.
NARRATOR: A bride for just 33 days, Mahmuda Khatun was now a widow. It looked like her husband had been taken from her in an act
of ferocious violence. The police immediately believe that Khatun is innocent. That she's not a victim.
That she is the grieving widow. And she plays the part admirably. She does a really good job.
JO SIDHU: The police had no reason at that stage to suspect that she was behind it.
After all, she was a diminutive young woman. And there was nothing about her or history
that suggests that she had a violent temperament. She has an excellent alibi. And she seems to be an individual who had
no reason to kill her husband. So people treat her with real care. JO SIDHU: The police looked at her as someone
who might help their inquiry. They spoke to her about her movements and the last time
that she'd seen her husband. She came up with the story that she was elsewhere. She told them she had no idea what had happened or why.
PETER BLEKSLEY: She told them that she'd been in Liverpool Street, another part of East London,
for some hours before returning to the flat, not being able to get in, and then calling the police.
NARRATOR: At first, Mahmuda's story seemed to stack up. What she said was that after work, she'd
traveled to Liverpool Street and gone to visit a friend at the hostel that she'd moved
out of just a few weeks before. PETER BLEKSLEY: To corroborate her story, Mahmuda gave the name of a friend
that she said she had been with from half past 7:00 until about half past 10:00.
Khatun's alibi is given by her friend Slava Cheema. And what she suggests is that she's been
with her the whole evening. An hour at least, which is when the crime was committed.
CLAIRE MACKINTOSH: The two had talked for around an hour that evening before Mahmuda had taken a cab back to Bethnal
Green to see her husband. NARRATOR: According to Mahmuda, she hadn't originally planned to return to her marital home
that evening. But then it had a change of heart. CLAIRE MACKINTOSH: She'd been at work until 7:00 PM that day
and then had let her mother know that she was planning to go back to the family home
and spend the night there. This was something that was not unusual either for her or for the culture that they lived in.
But her mother had reminded her that it was Miraj night, a special night for prayer, and that she should
really be with her husband. NARRATOR: Lailat al Miraj is an annual religious holiday
which many Muslims mark with prayers and a shared meal. As a devout man there was little doubt
Amin would want to celebrate such an important day. In fact, when he returned from work that evening at 7:30,
he'd gone straight back out to the mosque. Returning home just before 9:00 PM. CLAIRE MACKINTOSH: So later that evening, she then
sent another text message to her brother saying, mom was right. I should be back with my husband.
It's Miraj night. We should be praying together. NARRATOR: Mahmuda tells police that she had then bid
goodbye to her friend Slava and taken a taxi from Liverpool Street to Bethnal Green.
On arriving at Hadleigh House, she realized that she didn't have her keys. And that was when her alleged nightmare had begun.
CLAIRE MACKINTOSH: She couldn't get into the flat that she shared with her brand new husband.
She couldn't get hold of him on the phone. The door was locked. And what was worse, she could smell burning.
She was in fear for her husband's life. PETER BLEKSLEY: When the police entered the flat they found Mahmuda's husband,
Muhammad, lying dead on the floor. CLAIRE MACKINTOSH: And it's then that she enters into this play-acting of the distressed widow.
NARRATORS: Detectives were baffled they couldn't find anyone with a bad word to say about Mohammad
Amin Miah, let alone someone with an axe to grind. PETER BLEKSLEY: Everybody appeared to have
the same opinion of Muhammad. He was quiet, gentle, a hard working man, and nobody could think of a reason
why anybody would want to murder him. CLAIRE MACKINTOSH: The police were left scratching their head.
He was an upstanding member of the community. Miah, who regularly prayed at the local mosque,
helped out in the community. Had a good job. Got on well with friends and family, neighbors.
The door was locked. Who on Earth could have done this terrible thing to a man who seemingly had no enemies?
NARRATOR: Often, in murder investigations the first person to be questioned is a victim's spouse.
The person closest to him or her. PETER BLEKSLEY: They'd want to know whether she was at home.
Whether she heard anything. Whether there was any problem that her husband had with any third party.
NARRATOR: Mahmuda had clearly anticipated their questions. She had an answer for everything.
But Peter Bleksley, a former detective with London's Metropolitan Police force, knows only too well that a good copper
takes nothing at face value. PETER BLEKSLEY: There's the ABC of detective world.
A, accept nothing. B, believe nothing. And C, challenge everything. But despite Mahmuda's convincing portrayal
as the grief-stricken widow, something didn't add up with her story. The police eventually did challenge her story.
And that of course, is when it started to unravel. NARRATOR: New bride, Mahmuda Khatun,
tells detectives that she's devastated by the murder of her husband, Amin Miah, just 33 days after their wedding.
She also tells them that she has no idea who would want to kill him or why. Perhaps, she thought getting away with murder would be easy.
Eventually, the police asked her for her mobile phones and she handed them over.
And perhaps naively she hadn't understood that the mobile phones would tell a story of their own.
CLAIRE MACKINTOSH: One of those phones had been used almost exclusively to contact just one
number, that of Nasser Hussain. The young man Mahmuda met working at the optician's and with whom she
had developed a relationship. NARRATOR: For investigators, this was the first red flag.
This dedicated wife now a grieving widow had for months been in continuous contact
with another man. This contact had carried on right the way up to the wedding and beyond.
Even on Mahmuda's wedding day she had contacted Hussain and while she was on honeymoon.
There was clearly more to this friendship than Mahmuda's new husband was aware of.
NARRATOR: With this discovery police believe they had uncovered the motive for Mahmuda Khatun
to kill her husband. But where was the proof? At that point, they had nothing to link her with the crime.
EMMA KENNY: She seems to have a really exceptional alibi. CLAIRE MACKINTOSH: Mahmuda denied any involvement
in her husband's murder. She stuck to her defense that she'd be nowhere near the flat
and that the first time she'd arrived in Bethnal Green had been just before midnight when she called the police.
NARRATOR: But as police continued to dig into Mahmuda's mobile phone records, they uncovered a fascinating picture
of her movements that night. PETER BLEKSLEY: The evidence they found on those phones
completely dismantled Mahmuda's alibi that she'd been in Liverpool Street for hours
before arriving at the flat. JO SIDHU: And it was discovered through cell site analysis
that the phones had moved in a way that brought Mahmuda very close to the place of the murder at the time that it
had happened. PETER BLEKSLEY: One of these phones actually pinged at a mast right by that flat.
Her false story was beginning to unravel. CLAIRE MACKINTOSH: The police interviewed Slava again.
The friend who lived at Fidelis House who had been so adamant that she'd spent the evening talking to Mahmuda.
PETER BLEKSLEY: She confessed. She said she'd lied in her first statement to the police,
and that they had only been together for a few minutes, as opposed to the hours that Mahmuda had claimed.
CLAIRE MACKINTOSH: She was quick to point out that she hadn't done this through any desire
to cover up a crime. She had firmly believed that Mahmuda was innocent, and was trying to help out her friend
by providing her with an alibi. NARRATOR: Her alibi not stacking up, detectives had to piece together exactly
where Mahmuda had been that evening and what she'd been doing. At 10:30 PM having exchanged messages with her mother
about Miraj night, she texted her husband. CLAIRE MACKINTOSH: She says, "I'm coming over.
Don't go to sleep." NARRATOR: According to Mahmuda's first account to the police,
at that point she'd taken a cab from Liverpool Street to Bethnal Green arriving at Hadleigh House around 11
o'clock in the evening only to discover that she couldn't get in. In fact, this wasn't Mahmuda's first trip to her marital home
that evening. She traveled there earlier via cab. PETER BLEKSLEY: One of the phones
that Mahmuda had handed to the police, detectives found the telephone number of a minicab company that
had been called in the hours before Muhammad's murder. CLAIRE MACKINTOSH: She had booked
a minicab to take her from Fidelis House to Bethnal Green at 9:00 PM. Some three hours before the time she allegedly
arrived at the house to discover that her husband had been murdered. PETER BLEKSLEY: They traced the minicab driver.
And he said he'd taken a fare, a woman from Liverpool Street, to the flat that Mahmuda and Muhammad
shared wearing a burqa. CLAIRE MACKINTOSH: Her face was visible but she was dressed head to toe in a burqa.
Later on, it would be argued in court that it was this very burqa that she used to conceal the murder weapon.
EMMA KENNY: She doesn't ordinarily wear a burqa. But to disguise herself, to carry a knife,
to get to the flats without being seen on CCTV in a recognizable way, she uses her religion
to cover her tracks. CLAIRE MACKINTOSH: CCTV shows a vehicle of the same type as the mini cab that had been booked
by Mahmuda arriving at the flat at Bethnal Green just before 9:00 PM. They examined the fob key that allowed her entry
into the council block. And they figured out that the time that it was used last
was very close to the time of the killing. She had claimed that she'd left her keys at work,
but she still had her key fob. And when the police tried to force entry, they used the same fob to access the exterior
door to the property. In this way, they were able to confirm beyond all reasonable doubt that that
was Mahmuda's key fob that was used at 9:00 PM to access the property. NARRATOR: Police were able to build a timeline of Muhammad
Amin Miah's final moments. Returning from prayers at the nearby mosque, he used his key fob to enter the main door
at Hadleigh House at 8:57 PM. Mahmuda was already waiting. She had entered the flats just 1 minute before at 8:56 PM.
CLAIRE MACKINTOSH: She used her key fob to access the exterior door of the property.
And then it seems she waited somewhere between the exterior door and the flat itself.
That's the moment at which she called her husband to see where he was. NARRATOR: That call lasting 24 seconds was made at 9:06 PM.
It was the last call Amin ever took. CLAIRE MACKINTOSH: Very soon after she accessed the main flat building, her husband's key fob was used.
At this point now, Mahmuda has her husband where she wants him. In the flat where nobody can see them.
She went up to the floor where the flat was and knocked on the door. Her husband came to the door unsuspectingly.
And when he opened the door, within a matter of seconds, she had plunged a knife straight into his heart.
He bled to death in the hallway of their home. PETER BLEKSLEY: She left the flat and threw the knife away.
NARRATOR: At 9:38 PM, Khatun called another cab and returned to Liverpool Street.
Mahmuda then began the final part of her charade. CLAIRE MACKINTOSH: She texts her husband,
a man she already knows is lying in a pool of his own blood. She says, "I'm coming over.
Don't go to sleep." How callous must you be to set up an alibi in that way? She takes a final cab back to Bethnal Green.
And it's at this point that she then embarks on this play-acting. This-- this role of the bereaved widow that she plays that
is convincing enough that the police believe her. NARRATOR: Detectives weren't taken in for long.
JO SIDHU: The police became convinced that they'd found their murderer in Mahmuda Khatun.
But her lies were no match for technology. And in this case, CCTV, phone records, and the key fob
records showed that she was firmly at the scene of the crime. JO SIDHU: Once the evidential trail
took the police directly to Mahmuda Khatun, they got her back in. This time as a suspect.
She was arrested for the murder of her husband. When she got into the interrogation with the police,
she closed up. She refused to answer questions. The police put the evidence to her.
But she had nothing to say in response. And on the 20th of September, 2007, Mahmuda was charged with murder and remanded in custody.
She continued to stick to her defense and wouldn't give any more information, until the following year when her case
was prepared for trial. NARRATOR: The circumstantial evidence against Mahmuda was substantial, but was it enough to convict her
of murder? Only two people knew exactly what had happened in the hallway of Mahmuda and Amin's flat, and one of them
was dead. PETER BLEKSLEY: Whilst she sat in her prison cell probably poring over the considerable evidence that
was against her, I suspect she decided, I better come up with the defense that will fit the circumstances.
EMMA KENNY: In certain domestic violence situations we know that women and men have killed their partners
defending themselves. PETER BLEKSLEY: A few weeks before the murder trial is due to start Mahmuda changes tack.
She now says, yes, I did kill him. But says that she was subjected to a torrent of physical and verbal abuse.
JO SIDHU: When I first met Mahmuda Khatun it was in a women's prison. NARRATOR: Jo Sidhu, a lawyer experienced
in defending those accused of the most serious crimes. JO SIDHU: As one of her lawyers I felt a measure of sympathy
for her. When I saw her in prison she looked like a broken young woman. She was tearful.
She was upset. She was withdrawn. It was almost as though the whole world had come in on her
and there was nothing more that she could do. NARRATOR: Circumstantial evidence was stacked against Mahmuda.
Her phone records, CCTV, eyewitness accounts, records from the electronic entry door to the flats
where she lived with her husband, all showed she'd been in or near the flat when he was brutally stabbed to death.
Was there anything Mahmuda Khatun could do to persuade a jury that she wasn't guilty?
JO SIDHU: At her trial, Mahmuda accepted that she had lied to the police and given a false alibi.
She told the jury it was because she was frightened. She was panicking. She didn't know what else to do.
CLAIRE MACKINTOSH: Mahmuda said that she'd been the victim of prolonged abuse from her new husband.
And that on the night of the 9th of August, she had decided to tell her husband that she was leaving him.
She couldn't put up with this abuse any longer. PETER BLEKSLEY: She went to the flat
to tell him that she was going to leave him and she was going to pack her bags and disappear.
She told the jury that in fact, on the night that she killed her husband, she was indeed inside the flat.
That he had come home. That he'd been shouting at her. He'd been swearing at her.
He'd been abusing and insulting her. That she'd try to fight a corner and tell him that she'd
stand up for herself. She said Muhammad got violent and repeatedly punched her. Miah had lunged at her.
And in desperation, Mahmuda claimed to have grabbed a knife from the block on the side in the kitchen.
JO SIDHU: She didn't want to use it. She'd never held a knife in that fashion before.
She'd never hurt anyone in her life before. She said that she held the knife at waist level
in an underhand grip. Telling him, please, stay away. He wouldn't listen. PETER BLEKSLEY: She said that in fear
she backs away towards the front door, still holding the knife. Muhammad approached her.
She was frightened. And he kind of, walks onto the knife. JO SIDHU: It impaled him on that knife.
It went straight through to his heart. She realized immediately what had happened because the blood
was gushing out. She ran out of the flat and disappeared into the night. CLAIRE MACKINTOSH: She turned and fled
the flat having no idea that her husband had died. NARRATOR: Mahmuda certainly cut a sympathetic figure
to the jury. JO SIDHU: It was no ordinary trial. Her brother came to court. He gave evidence about their upbringing and their childhood.
It came out as I asked him questions that when she was a young girl she'd been forced to attend Quranic teaching
classes where she was beaten if she got even one word wrong. It upset him greatly and he felt an enormous amount of sympathy
for his sister. NARRATOR: This was what the jury were being asked to believe. At 21, she was pushed into an arranged marriage
with a man she accused of being abusive. At 28, she again succumbed to marrying a man
she felt little affection for. One who she would claim in court was also violent and controlling.
CLAIRE MACKINTOSH: She said in an interview, it's as though history is repeating itself.
JO SIDHU: There was a defense in law to her act. It could be that she might be found guilty of manslaughter
on the grounds of diminished responsibility or provocation. NARRATOR: It was a convincing tale.
But the prosecution immediately set about picking holes in Mahmuda's story, starting with the character
assassination of Amin. There was no evidence whatsoever that she'd suffered abuse at Amin's hands.
On the contrary, he'd been keen to make the marriage work. PETER BLEKSLEY: Muhammad was a gentle, kind, much-liked man.
CLAIRE MACKINTOSH: During the court case, one of the witnesses was the local imam.
He said that Miah had been to see him to explain that he was deeply unhappy in this new marriage.
He said that his wife Mahmuda refused to talk to him. That when he came to sit down next to her,
she'd stand up and move to another chair. She wouldn't eat the food he prepared.
And he said that she refused his sexual advances. And in fact, that the marriage had never been consummated.
NARRATOR: Her claim that she'd accidentally stabbed Amin while defending herself
also failed to stand up to scrutiny. CLAIRE MACKINTOSH: She'd claimed that Miah had assaulted her
and that was what had provoked her to grab the knife. But there was no evidence of a physical injury on Mahmuda.
PETER BLEKSLEY: There was no medical evidence to support the claims that Muhammad
had punched her that night. NARRATOR: In fact, pathology and scene of crime reports
seemed to contradict much of Mahmuda's story. CLAIRE MACKINTOSH: The pathologist's report
revealed that considerable force had been used to inflict the single stab wound that had killed Miah.
The knife had penetrated some 14 centimeters. Going through the cartilage of the ribs, through the heart,
and into the left lung. He died instantly. Arterial splatters across the hallway
showed that it would have been a matter of seconds. It would have been impossible for Mahmuda
not to have known that her husband had died the very second the knife entered his body.
NARRATOR: Then there was the murder weapon. CLAIRE MACKINTOSH: Mahmuda's claim that she grabbed a knife
from the block on the side in the kitchen simply didn't stack up. There was no knife missing from the block.
And to this day the murder weapon hasn't been found. NARRATOR: Far from being a spontaneous and desperate act
of self-defense, Mahmuda's every move that night seemed calculated to tell a certain story.
One that placed her far away from the marital home at the moment her husband had been killed.
EMMA KENNY: There was clearly a high level of premeditation to Khatun's crime. Not only because she disguises herself in the burqa,
that she goes out and makes sure that a friend covered her tracks. CLAIRE MACKINTOSH: She asked Slava
to tell anyone who might ask that they've been talking for at least an hour. She gives the appearance of someone that
has been there all evening. So the whole premeditation, then the acting around the events afterwards demonstrate that she absolutely
knew what she was doing, why she was doing it, and intended to do it. JO SIDHU: Mahmuda gave evidence on her own behalf.
She was cross-examined by a highly experienced prosecutor. A Queen's Council who knew exactly
what her weak points would be. He exploited those weak points as rightly he should
because that was his duty. But the result of it was that she stood there in the witness
box broken and fragmented. PETER BLEKSLEY: But the jury were not to be fooled. They saw through all of this.
They looked at the evidence. And that was compelling. Mahmuda was quite rightly found guilty of murder
and sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 17 years. NARRATOR: A month into their marriage, Amin Miah
and his bride Mahmuda Khatun should still have been enjoying the first exciting phase
of a new relationship. Though they weren't in love, Mahmuda had felt enough affection for Amin to agree to the wedding.
Telling her brother, she liked him and thought that he liked her. It was a fresh start for Mahmuda who'd been under pressure
for many years to settle down. EMMA KENNY: For Khatun, basing the relationship on thinking that she might grow to love her partner
was going to be something that always failed because what we know about relationships is you at least need
some physical attraction, some compatibility, personality traits that really do connect.
NARRATOR: Not only that, but Mahmuda seems to be harboring intense feelings for another man.
One she was not at liberty to marry. EMMA KENNY: Khatun was clearly motivated by her feelings
for somebody else. She believed that if she could get her new husband out of the way this would mean that she
was cleared to go and be with the person that she had feelings for. She's clearly a woman who's a victim of circumstance.
In her culture there is a strong possibility that she felt completely trapped. She didn't feel that she could be with the lover
that she wanted. She didn't want to be in a marriage that she didn't ever choose.
So the chances are that that enabled her to start having these ideas about how to escape.
JO SIDHU: The tale of Mahmuda Khatun is a tale of many young women from her background
who feel that they haven't been able to enjoy freedom in the same way as other people from this country.
But their tales don't often end up in a tragedy like this. NARRATOR: But what of her victim?
The quiet, pious man that she murdered in cold blood and then accused of being violent and abusive.
EMMA KENNY: Khatun tries to play the victim card because she genuinely thinks there is a chance that this innocent man
who has been murdered by her can be seen to be the predator and abuser. And that's even more disrespectful because this man
was completely innocent. And yet now, after she's murdered him brutally, she wants to paint him as the abuser.
If Mahmuda's only defense had been, I'm trapped in this marriage. I can't escape.
Murder is the only option. I wouldn't have had any sympathy for her then. Because you can always walk out of the front door
and go to a solicitor and start divorce proceedings. Nobody has the right to take another person's life.
She had no right. She's now in jail. And that is where she belongs. EMMA KENNY: No matter what your situation.
No matter how dreadful your experience. To push yourself past the moral compass that means that you can
go ahead and murder a defenseless, unarmed, compassionate partner shows that there is something
broken within your psyche. She was cold. She was callous. She didn't care about the harm that she inflicted on him
and she didn't care that when she had murdered him she tried to sully his name. Without doubt that suggests a psychopathic personality
disorder. JO SIDHU: Mahmuda wants to find a way out. And in desperation she thought, how could
she get out of this marriage? Eventually, she came to a decision that would determine the rest of her life
and end the life of her husband. NARRATOR: Mahmuda Khatun was found guilty by a majority
verdict of the premeditated murder of her husband, Muhammad Dilawer Amin, known to those who loved him as Amin.
She was sentenced to at least 17 years in prison and will not be eligible for release until 2025.
[music playing]

Mahmuda Khatun had managed to escape one unhappy arranged marriage before she made a drastic plan to end the second.

Though wedded couples vow to stay together until death do they part, this new true crime series looks at what happens when a groom or bride causes their beloved's death.

Brief Summary

Mahmuda Khatun murdered her husband Muhammad Miah 33 days after their wedding, driven by emotional ties to another man and cultural pressures.

Key points

Unexpected Complications. Mahmuda's relationship with a coworker complicates her new marriage.
The Shocking Discovery. Mahmuda's brothers find her husband dead just weeks after their wedding.
A Tragic Marriage. Muhammad Dilawer Miah and Mahmuda Khatun's marriage ends in tragedy just 33 days later.
The Alibi Unravels. Mahmuda's alibi begins to fall apart as evidence links her to the crime scene.
The Murder Weapon. The pathologist's report reveals the brutal nature of the stabbing, contradicting Mahmuda's claims.
Guilty Verdict. Mahmuda Khatun is found guilty of the premeditated murder of her husband.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

He was quiet, gentle, a hardworking man.

PETER BLEKSLEY describes Muhammad Dilawer Miah.

0:47WatchJun 8, 2022

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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