A woman and a teenager were secretly recorded agreeing to say they were not present when her lover was strangled at a house in Birmingham.
Zatoon Bibi told the 16-year-old to say that they had been hiding in a bathroom while her former husband had killed music shop owner Tanveer Iqbal downstairs.
During the conversations both Bibi and the co-defendant indicate that they are aware that the calls were being monitored.
Bibi, 37, Gul Nawaz, 44, and the teenage male have denied murdering 33-year-old Mr Iqbal.
Sally Howes QC, prosecuting at Birmingham that both women were aware of what was going on but cracks started to appear in the “unconventional” arrangement and that Bibi had started to try and stir up trouble between the victim and his wife.
Matters culminated on January 31 this year when, it is alleged, Mr Iqbal was lured to Bibi’s address for a birthday celebration where he was killed and his body put in the boot of his car.
Mrs Howes said Bibi had then driven the vehicle to Portland Road, Edgbaston, where the victim’s body was found crammed inside a cardboard box.
Transcripts of the calls made between Bibi and the 16-year-old were read to the jury during which the woman tells him to say that Mr Iqbal had come to the address, had got into an argument with her ex husband and that they had fought.
The trial continues.
