BEIRUT: A Lebanese man has been jailed for at least 24 years for murdering a woman whose body was dumped in a suitcase at Heathrow airport.

Youseff Wahid, 42, a former flight attendant, was found guilty in August and remanded to allow the judge to determine the minimum term of a life sentence, The Guardian said.

It said Wahid fled Britain for his native Lebanon the day after the body of Fatima Kama was discovered in July 1999, the Old Bailey heard.

Pursued by Scotland Yard detectives, Wahid fled again before he could be tried there but was sentenced to death in his absence.

He was eventually extradited from Bahrain last year – the first time anyone has been sent back to the U.K. from there.

Kama, 28, was on a week-long visit to London from Canada when she was attacked as she stayed in Wahid’s brother’s flat in Marble Arch, central London, according to the British daily.

It said that Kama was repeatedly stabbed in the back and that her throat was slashed before she was taken to an airport car park on the Heathrow Express from Paddington station.