‘Voice of God told me to kill girlfriend’

LONDON: A New York businessman strangled his British girlfriend in a hotel room after meeting her on a Muslim dating site, a court heard.

Sammy Almahri, 44, then hung a “Do Not Disturb” sign outside the room where Nadine Aburas’s body was later found, jurors were told this week.

His murder trial was told the businessman had tried to make her death look like a suicide before he fled abroad.

Almahri met Aburas, 28, on an internet dating site called MuslimMatch.com and they began a torrid two-year romance, the court heard.

Almahri then travelled from the US to see Aburas – and booked into the Future Inns hotel near her Cardiff Bay home in 2014.

She agreed to meet him and they went to a restaurant where witnesses saw them arguing. Thomas said Aburas was seen on CCTV, adding: “This was the last time she was seen alive.”

At around midnight, Almahri left the hotel alone.

When he got back he then left at 3am, leaving a “Do Not Disturb’ sign on the door. Aburas was found dead nine hours later, Cardiff Crown Court heard.Police soon discovered Almahri had fled the country on a flight from Heathrow to Qatar.

Jurors were told Almahri later claimed he had had sex with Aburas before she asked him to put his belt around her neck. He said she told him she loved him before hanging herself.

Almahri has pleaded guilty to manslaughter but denies murder – claiming he was suffering from “abnormality of mental function” and that he was hearing “the voice of God” telling him to kill Aburas.

The trial continues. – Daily Mail