Cheating husband strangled wife then burnt her alive when she tried to leave him

 

A cheating husband knocked his mistress unconscious then burned her alive after she tried to leave him for another man, it is alleged.

 

Omar Banjnemar, 40, from Pyatigorsk, Russia, allegedly flew into a rage when lover Vera Mikhaleva, 35, told him she wanted to end their affair.

 

Banjnemar is then said to have strangled her until she was unconscious before bundling her into her own car and driving it to the outskirts of town.

He then covered the vehicle in petrol and set it ablaze with her inside, police said.

 

The woman’s friend Naina Kazantseva, 37, said: "I knew she had been unhappy for a long time.

 

"He was often violent towards her and treated her like dirt.

 

"She then met a charming man who could offer her so much more and she fell for him.

 

"She told me she was going to see Omar that night to finish it and I told her she should call me afterwards to let me know how it went.

 

"I never saw her again."

 

After the victim failed to get in touch, Kazantseva became suspicious and contacted the police.

 

She said: "I became worried and when I tried the next day and the phone was still off I decided to go to report her missing."

 

A police spokesman said: "The victim’s friend told us the circumstances surrounding her disappearance and we decided it was worth talking to the accused.

 

"When officers questioned him he at first denied having seen the victim."

 

But after police confronted him with evidence including CCTV images of her driving his car, he confessed to killing her.

 

The man faces life in prison if convicted of the murder.