CRIME SPECIAL
PHOTOS: 9 NEWSAhmed wept as he was sentenced to
life behind bars with a minimum of 23 years
in May 2019. Supreme Court Justice Bruno
Fiannaca described the killing as brutal,
callous and cowardly.
Despite the evidence suggesting that
Fahima was dead before she was buried,
he said he could still not be certain this was
the case – but that the end she met was
cruel either way.
“If the assault and choking did not kill
her, then the sand would have,” he said.
He also said Fahima’s last words of
“I love you” would have been uttered out
of desperation at the horror of what was
happening – a plea to make Ahmed stop.
Justice Fiannaca branded Ahmed a
narcissist who thought he could get away
with his twisted crime.
“It may have been technically clumsy
but it was calculated behaviour,” he said.
Ahmed’s obsession with Fahima’s sister
was also noted. “You envisaged a future
with your sister-in-law,” Justice Fiannaca
told the killer. “You had become emotionally
dependent on her.”
Last year, Ahmed was sentenced to a
further 10 years for stealing and defrauding
$5.8million (£3.3million) from clients – including
family members – which he gambled away.
Ahmed has allegedly said that if he is
granted parole, he never intends to enter into
another relationship. But his statement is
of little comfort to the family of Fahima, who
had devoted her life to him, only for him to
so viciously end hers. While she honoured
her commitment to her husband despite their
problems, little could she have known he
was plotting to betray her so cruelly.
GAIL SHORTLANDto bury her in the hole that had been dug
for him days earlier.
Fahima’s cause of death remained
undetermined, but she was found to have
suffered lacerations to her head and body
and had sand in her mouth but not in her
airway – suggesting she was most likely
dead when she was buried.
However, that didn’t make her final
moments any less horrific as she endured
a savage attack that came out of nowhere.SHOCKING WEB SEARCHES
In January 2019, Ahmed pleaded guilty
to murdering Fahima. His lawyer said he
wasn’t attracted to his wife any more and
“couldn’t meet her unrealistic demands”.
They tried to suggest he had “lost it”
on the night of her death after she became
“sexually aggressive”.
But it was a theory quickly dismissed
by the prosecution, which outlined the
shocking internet search history that had
led up to Fahima’s death.
The court heard it suggested a great
deal of planning – which also
involved the hole being dug in
the back garden.
In victim impact statements,
Fahima’s mother spoke of the
devastating effect the murder
had had on their lives. And
Fahima’s sister, who had no
idea of Ahmed’s warped plan,
continues to deal with the
“psychological scars”.
Their world has changed
forever and they must now
raise the two children left
traumatised by their loss.burying her in their back yard. Shockingly, it
was also clear that Ahmed had been planning
to kill Fahima for weeks.
He had made several disturbing searches
online, including “cremating a body” and “the
best place to knock someone out” – plus how
to bury someone alive.
Ahmed had also looked up, “Can you
marry your brother-in-law if your sister is
a dead Muslim?”
That search gave some clear indication of
a motive – with Fahima dead, he had planned
on seeing through his obsession to be with
her sister.
Ahmed told officers he had struck his
wife with the wheel brace while she slept.
Fahima wasn’t knocked out straight away
and woke up. But she was dazed by the huge
blow to her head and easily overpowered as
he bludgeoned her.
Ahmed then choked or suffocated her
to death and he said that, as the life drained
out of her, devoted Fahima mouthed to him,
“I love you.” They were her final words.
Ahmed then dragged her body outside
Fahima’s body was
found in a hole dug
for the family poolOn their
wedding day