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London: An unfaithful husband was found guilty on Wednesday of hiring a hit man to kill his wife so that he could use her life assurance to start a new life with his pregnant mistress.
Fadi Nasri, who wore his wedding ring throughout the trial at the Old Bailey, faces life in jail after being convicted of murdering special constable Nisha Patel-Nasri months after he had started an affair with a Lithuanian prostitute.
The court heard that Nasri gave his house keys to the killer - hired for £15,000 (Dh108,977) and left his wife alone at their home in Wembley, north-west London. She was stabbed to death as she attempted to flee the knifeman.
Nasri, 34, tried to pass the murder off as a robbery gone wrong and acted the role of grieving husband at a police news conference.
He even gave detectives false leads - naming five people who he said wanted his 39-year-old wife dead - while he took secret holidays with Laura Mockiene, his lover. Police believe Mockiene became pregnant with Nasri's baby, but later had an abortion.
Three months before the murder on May 11, 2006, the married couple had taken out a £350,000 joint life assurance policy. Nasri had debts of more than £100,000 and was using his limousine firm as a cover for drug deals. Unbeknown to his wife, he had been jailed for nine months in 1998.
While in prison, Nasri met Rodger Leslie - the fixer he used to set up the "hit". Leslie, 38, a heroin dealer, arranged for Jason Jones, a bouncer with burglary and assault convictions, to carry out the killing.
Nasri, Leslie and Jones were all found guilty of murder by majority verdict after a three-month trial. Tony Emmanuel, who acted as a driver for Jones, was cleared and walked free.
Outside court, Katen Patel, Nisha's brother, described Nasri as deceptive and manipulative and called the killing "barbaric".
In a chilling echo to the case, Farouk Nasri, Fadi's divorced father, was also accused of killing his lover.
The 53-year-old hanged himself while on remand at Leicester Prison in 2000, having been charged with murdering Jennifer Elverson, 27, and her son, Ben, 7.
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