Suitcase Killer Sentenced After Bahrain Extradition

The 'suitcase killer' Yousseff Ahmed Mosalam Wahid, 42, has been jailed for life at the Old Bailey for the murder of Fatima Kama in 1999.

He will serve a minimum of 24 years after the police issued appeals to trace the suspect and tracked him to Bahrain in 2010.

The police working together with the Bahranian Police mounted a carefully planned operation to locate and arrest him, resulting in his extradition - the first such extradition of a UK fugitive from Bahrain.

Detective Chief Inspector John McFarlane, from the London's Homicide and Serious Crime Command (HSCC), officer leading the investigation, said: "This was a callous and shocking murder which left a family grieving the loss of a beloved daughter.

"Wahid spent 12 years evading police and refused to face up to what he had done, I am pleased that Fatima's family have finally got justice and that Wahid is behind bars, where he belongs".

Fatima's body was found abandoned in a suitcase on an airport luggage trolley in a Heathrow airport car park on 17 July 1999.

Members of the public alerted a security officer to an unattended suitcase that had been left on the third floor of the terminal three car park.

The security guard forced it open and found the body of Fatima, curled up in a foetal position.

Police were called and a murder investigation opened. The body was subsequently identified as that of 28-year old, Moroccan born Fatima.

She had been a Canadian citizen for at least two years prior to her murder and was a regular visitor to London. She arrived in the country for the last time on 10 July 1999 on a return ticket to Canada, due to fly back to Montreal that evening.

It was known that both Wahid and Fatima stayed at an address in the Marble Arch area, Portsea Hall, Portsea Place, W2.

Fatima had stayed at the address earlier that year and on returning to the UK this final time had organised to sleep over at the flat. They were not partners. The premises belonged to a mutual associate.

Fatima is believed to have been transported in a black fabric suitcase, bearing the motif 'Black Paw New York', from the murder scene to Heathrow airport.

A post mortem at Ealing Hospital mortuary revealed that Fatima had been subjected to multiple stab wounds and was sexually assaulted.

Youssef Ahmed Mosalam Wahid fled the country and travelled around various Middle Eastern Countries living under false names in an effort to evade justice.

(BMcC/CD)