Bethnal Green bride convicted of murder loses appeal

A NEWLYWED who hid a knife under her burkha and used it to stab her husband through the heart has failed to convince top judges to overturn her murder conviction today. Mahmuda Khatun, 29, of Hitchen Square, Bow, was convicted of murdering Mohammed Amin M

A NEWLYWED who hid a knife under her burkha and used it to stab her husband through the heart has failed to convince top judges to overturn her murder conviction today.

Mahmuda Khatun, 29, of Hitchen Square, Bow, was convicted of murdering Mohammed Amin Miah in December 2008 at the Old Bailey and jailed for life.

She concealed a knife under a burkha - not something she usually wore - arriving at the home the couple shared in Bethnal Green in August 2007. She plunged the weapon into Mr Miah's chest when he opened the door.

The couple had tied the knot just a month earlier.

Khatun denied murder, claiming that she accidentally stabbed her husband - a kitchen porter at a West End casino - during a row when she was trying to leave him.

But she initially told police that she had been locked out of the flat on the night of the killing and looked through the letterbox to see blood on the walls in the hallway. That was disproved by mobile phone records.

Barrister, Kim Hollis QC, representing Khatun at London's Criminal Appeal Court, told Lord Justice Hooper, sitting with Mr Justice Openshaw and Judge Nicholas Cooke QC, that the attack had not been premeditated and Khatun had been subject to significant provocation.

She urged the judges to downgrade Khatun's murder conviction to manslaughter.

However, the judges dismissed her appeal against conviction and Lord Justice Hooper said the Appeal Court would give reasons for its decision at a later date.

Khatun is also challenging her 17-year minimum jail term, but the judges also reserved their decision on that part of her appeal.