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Zobaidah Salangy, 28, was buried in an unmarked grave near Bromsgrove in Worcestershire in March 2020 with the assistance of her husband’s two brothers.
Husband Nezam Salangy, 44, was sentenced to 18 years in prison. He claims the body discovered was not his wife’s.
Mohammed Ramin Salangi, 31, and Mohammed Yasin Salangi, 33, were both found guilty of assisting a criminal.
At Worcester Crown Court, they were sentenced to six years and nine months in prison, respectively.
Mr Justice Hilliard said the attempts to cover up the murder had been “shameful”. He concluded that the business owner had considered murdering his wife prior to the murder.
“I’m sure you were violent to her, slapping her with an open hand on occasion and pulling her hair, which caused her to cut it short.”
“It was clear that the relationship had completely failed.” I’m sure you intended to murder her.”
“In one recording (found after the murder), you seemed to rule out divorce and stated that either she died or you did.”
Mrs Salangy’s family said in a victim impact statement that she “loved people of all races and beliefs” and wanted to start a career in medicine after studying and graduating from college in difficult conditions in Afghanistan.
“She was taken from us… and our human society in a brutal and cruel way.”
Mrs Salangy worked as a math teacher in Afghanistan before marrying her husband in an arranged marriage in November 2012 and moving to the UK the following year.
Nezam Salangy fled to the United Kingdom in 2002 after the Taliban targeted his family. He divorced his first wife in 2010 before marrying Zobaidah, a sister’s friend.
The couple “argumented bitterly” on March 27, 2020, the day before Mrs Salangy disappeared, according to the trial.
Detectives later discovered her phone hidden in the pizza shop, as well as a second device believed to have been used to arrange for her body to be hidden with his brothers.
According to the men’s trial, Salangy, of Austin Road, Bromsgrove, killed his wife of eight years on March 28 and then called his brothers for help in disposing of her body.
Mohammed Ramin drove more than 90 miles (149 kilometres) to Bromsgrove in a taxi, pretending to be delivering a part for a broken pizza oven.
Tape on the police car in the lane
Zobaidah Salangy’s body was bound in curtain wire and wrapped in black bin bags before being buried in the woods.
Mrs. Salangy’s body was not discovered for more than six months, according to the court, despite a police dig in the area near Lower Bentley that did not go deep enough into the ground.
She’d been bound in curtain wire and wrapped in black bin bags, along with a duvet cover that matched the couple’s pillow cases.
According to the trial, Nezam Salangy used bank accounts and phone messages to generate fake leads that appeared to show she was still alive.
Salangy also attempted to deceive police, telling them that she “went out for a run and never returned” after leaving him for a “new boyfriend.”
However, because of the time it took to find her, it was impossible to determine her cause of death.
The judge stated that disposing of the body near Lower Bentley was an aggravating factor in the murder.
“She was not properly buried, but was hidden to conceal the murder,” he added. “She was there for six and a half months, and the pathologist was unable to determine a cause of death as a result.”
He accepted that both of his younger brothers, who were from Caerphilly, near Cardiff, and served alongside Allied forces in Afghanistan, were suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
The court heard Nezam Salangy maintains that the body discovered near Bromsgrove was not his wife’s and that she is still alive.
