LONDON: A husband on trial for murdering his wife has also been accused of stealing her mobile phone to send falsified messages about a fictional boyfriend, prosecutors in his trial have said.
Nezam Salangy, 44, is alleged to have killed his wife Zobaidah in March 2020 in the English town of Bromsgrove.
Salangy’s brothers, Mohammed Yasin, 33, and Ramin, 31, have also been charged with assisting an offender.
Zobaidah had gone missing before her body was found in a shallow countryside grave by police in October 2020, who alleged her body had been taken from the Salangy’s pizza takeaway business by the men.
In court this week, prosecutors said Nezam drove out to areas in the West Midlands of England and around the city of Birmingham in the days after his wife’s disappearance, allegedly in possession of her phone.
The court heard that car telematics data placed him in the same location as his missing wife’s phone, including on Smethwick High Street.
“When Nezam travelled… so did Zobaidah’s phone,” Simon Denison of the prosecution told the court.
Messages sent to Nezam’s phone from Zobaidah’s at the time were read out in court, with one saying: “Don’t contact me anymore, I have a boyfriend and soon will leave infidel country. Go away, I have boyfriend and don’t need you anymore.”
The prosecution said it was “further evidence that he was in possession of her phone and writing all those messages to her but also from her.”
Data from phones used by Nezamand Mohammed Ramin was also collected by police, which placed the brothers along the route and at the burial site area, jurors heard.
The trial continues.