A man accused of fatally stabbing his wife has given evidence he blamed her father and brother for her murder as soon as he found her bloodied body inside their Gordon home.
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Maged Mohommed Ahmed Al-Harazi, 36, denied in the witness box he had anything to do with the death of Sabah Al-Mdwali, 28, in March 2015.
Prosecutors say Mr Al-Harazi stabbed his wife 57 times after a lengthy argument at their Knoke Avenue house.
His ACT Supreme Court jury trial has heard the couple, who had three children, moved between their native Yemen and Australia. Disagreements about where they would live were a source of ongoing tension in their relationship.
Mr Al-Harazi was charged with murder, but pleaded not guilty. He has maintained his wife had a dispute with her father and brother and the men were responsible for her death.
The pair was arrested soon after the killing, but were later released without charge. His trial has heard evidence neither man was near the couple's house around the time of the murder.
Mr Al-Harazi spoke of the night of his wife's death when he continued his evidence, through an Arabic interpreter, on Thursday.
He said his wife ran upstairs when her father and brother had knocked on the door of the couple's home in the early hours of March 17, telling him she didn't want to speak with them and he should say she was asleep.
The court had previously heard Mr Al-Harazi said the men showed up at the door late on the night of March 16.
However, Mr Al-Harazi said he'd been in shock when he spoke to police about that night and now believed the pair arrived about 2am.
He said the men told him they needed to talk to Ms Al-Mdwali about a private matter and eventually convinced Mr Al-Harazi to leave the house with the children.
When he returned about 20 minutes later, Mr Al-Harazi said the men had left. He went upstairs after he heard his seven-year-old son scream.
"He said, 'Dad come, Mum is in the bed and she's not answering me'.
"I saw my wife lying in the bed. I called her name four times.
Mr Al-Harazi said he approached his wife and thought "she might be doing a trick on me".
"I came near to her and looked at her hands. I saw blood, lots of blood and smelled blood.
"And then I realised because of this disagreement, [her father and brother] might have been the ones who did this."
Mr Al-Harazi said he believed his wife had been angry with her family in the lead-up to her death.
"I know things you don't know," he said. "I am the one who used to live with them, not you.
"When I saw her on the bed I was certain they did it. They would have beaten her up or done something to her."
Mr Al-Harazi then drove to Tuggeranong police station with his children to report the incident before returning to the house with police.
"I said to my son, please tell them about her father and brother coming to the house," he said.
He denied he told his son to lie to police and said he used him to interpret for him as his English was poor.
Under cross-examination from prosecutor Shane Drumgold, Mr Al-Harazi said he'd often felt lonely and homesick when he was in Australia and told his wife he wanted to go back to Yemen.
He denied he'd torn Ms Al-Mdwali's Australian citizenship certificate, which police found ripped inside the couple's house.
Mr Drumgold continues his cross-examination on Friday.
