Body-in-the-boot murderer has appeal rejected
A mother-of-six who murdered her lover and then dumped his body in a car boot has had an appeal against her conviction dismissed.
The body of Tanveer Iqbal, who ran Smethwick store Hi-Tech Music, was found in February last year in a cardboard box inside the boot of his own Renault Clio, which had been abandoned on Portland Road in Edgbaston.
He had been strangled, and in September his former lover 37-year-old Zatoon Bibi and her ex-husband 44-year-old Gul Nawaz were found guilty of his murder, along with their 16-year-old son Kashim Nawaz.
Bibi claimed during her trial that she had nothing to do with the killing.
And this week she took her case to the Court of Appeal claiming there was extra evidence about her background and events in her life which might have helped her defence.
It took three top judges less than two minutes to reject her attempted appeal as "unarguable".
Sir Andrew Smith said Bibi, of Bridgebourne Road, Bartley Green, had put forward a defence at her trial which the jury "simply didn't believe".
Her arguments were a case of her "seeking to reargue her case" before appeal judges, he said.
He added there was no legal basis for challenging the jury's guilty verdict as extra evidence would not support the defence she ran at the trial.
The judge, sitting with Lady Justice Rafferty and Mr Justice Langstaff, dismissed Bibi's appeal application.
The decision leaves her facing a minimum of 27 years behind bars for the murder.
Bibi had been in a long-term relationship with Mr Iqbal, and had two children by him.
On January 31, the day after his 33rd birthday, Mr Iqbal planned to meet up with Bibi as they regularly did at her home in Bartley Green.
Bibi lured Mr Iqbal with the promise of birthday cake and the chance to see the pair’s children.
However earlier that day CCTV captured her ex-husband Nawaz in Oldbury’s Poundland store purchasing items including blue heavy duty rope, two pairs of non-slip gloves and a 10-metre roll of reinforced silver Gaffa tape.
The pair and their son then all went to her home and waited for Mr Iqbal to arrive. CCTV outside the property also caught them putting the box containing his body into his own car.
Gul Nawaz is serving a jail term of at least 25 years. His son Kashim was detained for a minimum of six years.
