Nabeel Khan strangled Dr Iffat Kamal, 39, during an argument on December 10 last year in Dundee.

The pathologist died 10 days later in the city’s Ninewells Hospital, where she had worked.

At the High Court in Edinburgh today, Khan, 45, was ordered to spend at least 15 years behind bars before being eligible for release.

Khan had offered a guilty plea to the lesser charge of culpable homicide but this was rejected by the Crown and he went on trial for murder.

He was convicted at the High Court in Perth on August 4 of murdering his wife by seizing her throat, compressing it and restricting her breathing until she was unconscious at their home in Simpson Court.

Passing sentence, Lord Hardie said Dr Kamal had been “a successful, dedicated pathologist who was in the final stages of becoming a consultant”.

Lord Hardie told the killer: “In my view, this was an unprovoked, persistent attack upon your wife, who was smaller, lighter and weaker physically than you.”

He added: “There are no mitigating factors and your wife’s conduct was not a contributing factor to your actions.”

The judge also said he would recommend that Khan be deported from the UK upon his eventual release from prison.

None of Dr Kamal’s relatives were in court today. They had been present in court earlier this month to see Khan convicted of murder.

Speaking after the earlier verdict, Dr Kamal’s mother, Nighat Kamal, 64, said the family were glad they could now move on.

She paid tribute to her daughter, saying: “She was a very gentle person and the irony is that her end should be so violent and so gruesome.

“She had a bright, wide smile, ringing laughter and a radiant, vivacious personality.

“She was intelligent, courteous, a loving daughter, a very affectionate sister and the world’s best mum.”

During the trial the court heard that Khan had told police officers that he slapped his wife and had his arm around her neck during a fight.

He said he had little recollection of what followed but that his “senses came back” when he realised she was not moving and called an ambulance.

His wife was treated in intensive care at Ninewells Hospital, where she worked, but she never regained consciousness.

A pathologist who did the post-mortem examination on Dr Kamal said she died from the damage caused by a lack of oxygen to the brain.

The court heard that two children were in the house at the time of the attack.

Lord Hardie said today that it was “impossible” to know what psychological harm had been caused to the youngsters.

Jurors in the trial were told that the couple had had relationship problems, and Khan claimed that the cause of arguments between him and his wife was her drinking.

The court heard that Khan had a gambling habit and that he had lost £17,000 in spread betting.

Lord Hardie told Khan today: “It seems to me that your evidence and allegations about her drinking were no more than an attempt to discredit her and to justify, or at least mitigate, your actions in taking her life.

“Even if they had been true, they would not have amounted to justification or mitigation of her murder.”