A man accused of stabbing his wife to death in a "frenzied" attack as she breastfed their 10-month-old son has been found guilty of murder.
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Maged Mohommed Ahmed Al-Harazi, 36, did not visibly react as the jury handed down its verdict in the ACT Supreme Court trial on Thursday after less than five hours of deliberations.
His wife's family members exclaimed "yes" and clapped from their seats in a packed public gallery.
The five-week trial heard from more than 100 witnesses and revolved around whether Mr Al-Harazi was the killer who inflicted 57 stab wounds on his wife, Sabah Al-Mdwali, in the early hours of March 17 in 2015.
Al-Harazi was charged after Ms Al-Mdwali, 28, was found dead on a bed inside an upstairs bedroom of the couple's Gordon home.
But he pleaded not guilty and maintained his innocence throughout court proceedings, insisting Ms Al-Mdwali's father and brother were responsible for her killing.
The two men were arrested in the hours after her death, but released without charge. Prosecutors said there was strong evidence neither man was near the house that night.
The trial heard the couple, who married in Yemen in 2005 and later moved to Australia, had a volatile relationship and often argued about where they would live.
Al-Harazi was desperately unhappy and wanted to move back to their home country, while his wife wanted the pair and their three young children to remain close to her family in the ACT.
Tensions between the pair escalated in the months leading up to the killing, with Ms Al-Mdwali briefly moving back with her parents after a violent episode where Al-Harazi lost his temper and damaged furniture inside their house.
Members of the Arabic community eventually brokered an agreement between Al-Harazi and his father-in-law, that required him to buy his wife furniture and jewellery.
Ms Al-Mdwali returned to her husband in the weeks before she died.
The day of the killing, prosecutors said, Al-Harazi's unrest mounted after he lost his job and he and his wife signed another 12-month lease for their Knoke Avenue home.
That left Al-Harazi, who had a poor grasp of English and struggled to hold down work, unable to meet the terms of the agreement and stuck in Australia for another year.
Neighbours gave evidence they heard a loud argument from the couple's home that broke out the night of March 16 and raged for five hours. Prosecutors said Mr Al-Harazi tore his wife's Australian citizenship in two during the fight.
Shortly after 2am, he used a knife to slash his wife's head, face, neck and chest about 20 times, eventually causing her to slump forward on the bed as she tried to protect the baby.
An autopsy showed some stabs passed through her shoulder and neck and she suffered defensive wounds to her hands.
As she hunched over, motionless, her husband stabbed her in the back more than 30 times.
Mr Al-Harazi then drove to Tuggeranong police station, where he bashed on the door making stabbing motions at his chest as he said "My wife, my wife".
The trial heard his son, interpreting for his father, told officers his grandfather killed his mother. Police went back to the house with Al-Harazi and found his wife's bloodied body.
Al-Harazi was later arrested.
His son, too, kept telling police his mother's father and brother had killed her. But his story eventually broke down and he later apologised and admitted his father had told him what to say.
In his evidence, he said his father hadn't let him see his mother before they left for the police station shortly after her death. He also recalled seeing his father clean a knife at the house that night.
Al-Harazi, in his early interviews with police, asked police why he was being questioned and told them to quiz his father and brother-in-law.
Police later found Al-Harazi's passport in the glovebox of the car he had driven to the station, though he denied he planned to flee to Yemen after telling police the two men killed his wife.
Al-Harazi's denials continued when he took the stand over three days in the trial's fourth week, when he said allegations he lost his temper during the argument with his wife before killing her were in the prosecutor's imagination.
"I don't agree," Mr Al-Harazi said. "Her father and brother would have done it."
He will be sentenced at a later date.
