A tearful Rawaa Hassan, sister of Baiba's husband Hassan, told the Sunday Tribune that there was no way she could have gone to Riga. "Everyone thinks Hassan killed her, " she said. "Although I would have liked to, there is no way I could have gone" She recalled Baiba as a "happy woman, a good woman. She was always joking. She loved her sons. I still can't believe she was buried today. When I see it on the TV I can't believe it."

Rawaa has been in contact with social services every day asking if she can look after Baiba's two children, Alex and Rami.

"The boys are not happy. They are in a strange home where no Arabic is spoken. They're not eating, they're not sleeping. They understand everything. The youngest boy is only three. He told me: 'I have no Mommy anymore.' I am like a second mother to them, but they won't let me take them."

Rawaa has spare room in her four-bedroomed home, which she shares with her three children . . . two boys and a girl.

One of the boys translated for her during her interview with the Sunday Tribune.

"Hassan loves his kids, " she said.

"How could he kill Baiba and leave his kids in care? Do they think that makes him happy? I know my brother had problems in the past, but he is not a killer.

How could anyone think he would do that to the mother of his two boys and his wife."

Rawaa said Hassan and Baiba had problems "like any man and woman, but they loved each other. I remember when she went to the Lebanon for the first time to visit my family . . . she came back so happy. My family loved her.

"I still cannot tell my mother that Baiba is dead. She called me today. She has no idea that Baiba was dead. It would kill her."