By CASEY NEILL
A FORMER Dandenong volunteer was last week jailed for killing his wife, but will be eligible for parole in less than six years.
Nasir Ahmadi, 48, pleaded guilty to manslaughter and told the Supreme Court he strangled Mandy Ahmadi, also known as Zahara Rahimzadegan, and buried her in their Ashwood backyard in December 2011.
The 46-year-old mother-of-two donated her time up to seven days a week with Catch the Fire Ministries and her own organisation, Women’s Better World, which operated from Cornerstone in Dandenong.
Cornerstone co-ordinator Don Cameron said she used a room for hair dressing and other activities.
“Mandy was also on the board at Cornerstone for a while,” he said.
“We were all shocked to hear what happened to her.
“We counselled people as we grieved her death and attended her funeral together.”
She and Mr Ahmadi, who volunteered alongside her, had worked at the centre just hours before her death on 16 December.
On 18 December he reported her missing to police and denied knowing why.
“In fact, you had killed your wife two days earlier in the lounge room of the family home and buried her in your back garden,” Justice Elizabeth Curtain said in her sentencing on 5 June.
Police uncovered her body in January last year.
“In the two or three days after her death you had constructed the decking over her grave, with the unwitting assistance of your son, Kashi, some of his friends and neighbours,” Justice Curtain said.
“When confronted with the discovery of her body, you admitted you had killed her because she was going to go to Adelaide with another man.
“Mrs Ahmadi had complained to friends that you had been violent towards her.”
Justice Curtain ordered Mr Ahmadi to serve a maximum 11 years in prison, and at least seven before becoming eligible for parole. He’d already served 509 days.
She said he had “very favourable” prospects for rehabilitation and nine testimonials submitted to the court described him as “a gentle spirit, generous and sacrificial”.
Justice Curtain also took into account Mr Ahmadi’s past, which included torture for his political allegiance in Tehran.
The Ahmadis came to Australia as refugees and established a restaurant and bakery in the Dandenong area, living in Rowville, but the business failed in 2006 and the family moved to public housing in Ashwood.
