A failed Kurdish asylum seeker Dana Abdullah found guilty of killing of his estranged wife Avan Najmadeen in UK in February 2019. Photo: Staffordshire Police
LONDON,— A failed Kurdish asylum seeker has been jailed for life after murdering his estranged wife in a row over immigration.
Dana Abdullah, from Leigh, Greater Manchester, stabbed Avan Najmadeen 50 times at her home in Stoke-on-Trent.
Before the attack, he had discovered the 32-year-old mother-of-four had refused to support his application to remain in the UK.
Abdullah, 35, was sentenced at Stafford Crown Court to a minimum of 18 years and eight months.
Iran-born Abdullah used a kitchen knife to attack his wife at her home in Glebedale Road, Fenton, on 1 October.
He then doused her body with white spirit in a bid to destroy evidence and left her to die.
Staffordshire Police described it as a “brutal and sustained attack”.
The alarm was raised when Ms Najmadeen failed to collect her children from school, and her estranged husband was arrested the following day after fleeing to Liverpool and then Glasgow.
Ms Najmadeen had moved addresses on a number of occasions after ending her relationship with Abdullah to avoid detection.
Prosecutor Andrew Smith QC summarised a victim impact statement from Ms Najmadeen’s sister Hevi, saying her death had had a “profound emotional impact” on the family.
Avan Najmadeen, an Iraqi Kurdish mother of four, found stabbed to death in UK, October 2018. Photo: PA
“When Dana killed my sister Avan, he killed all of us, my mother, my father and her children as well,” she said.
Passing sentence, Judge Michael Chambers QC said: “This was, on any view, a planned and pre-meditated murder involving a brutal and sustained attack using a knife – knowing full well that it would deprive four children under the age of eight of their mother.”
Det Ch Insp Victoria Downing described Abdullah as “an arrogant and controlling man”.
She said he “resented the fact his wife had moved on and was refusing to help his immigration application to stay in the country”.
Other motives for the murder included Ms Najmadeen “starting a new relationship and converting to Christianity”, Det Ch Insp Downing said.
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