BUFFALO, NY — A judge yesterday gave a former television executive the harshest punishment he could for beheading his estranged wife: 25 years to life in prison and a withering assessment of his character.

The judge scoffed at the idea that Muzzammil Hassan stabbed Aasiya Hassan more than 40 times and decapitated her because he was afraid of her.

“You bought two hunting knives, you tested them for sharpness, you laid in wait in a darkened hallway for your unsuspecting wife and you butchered her,” Judge Thomas Franczyk said in Erie County Court.

“Self-defense? I don’t think so.”

Hassan, 46, killed his wife inside the offices of the Muslim-oriented Bridges television station the couple started to dispel negative cultural stereotypes.

The 37-year-old mother of two had filed for divorce a week before her brutal death in February 2009.