- Naila Mumtaz, 21, who was six months pregnant, was killed in her Birmingham home in 2009
- She died while her husband's family tried to drive a harmful 'jinn' spirit out of her, Birmingham Crown Court was told
- Her husband, Mohammed Tauseef Mumtaz was told he must serve at least 13 years in prison for her murder
- Mumtaz's mother and father, Salma Aslam and Zia Ul-Haq, both 51, were told they must serve at least 15 years
- Mumtaz's brother-in-law Hammad Hassan, 24, will serve minimum of 13 years
- All four were convicted of murder after 12-week trial which ended in July
By Rob Preece
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Victim: Four members of the same family have been jailed for life for the murder of Naila Mumtaz, who was six months pregnant
A husband, his parents and his brother-in-law were all jailed for life today after they murdered his pregnant wife in an apparent attempt to rid her of an evil spirit.
Mohammed Tauseef Mumtaz, 25, had to be carried out of the dock by his father after he was told he would serve a minimum of 13 years for murdering his wife Naila.
Mrs Mumtaz, who was six months pregnant, was smothered at her Birmingham home in 2009.
Mumtaz's brother-in-law, Hammad Hassan, was also imprisoned for at least 13 years, while his mother and father, Salma Aslam and Zia Ul-Haq, were both given minimum terms of 15 years by a judge at Birmingham Crown Court.
Mumtaz, his parents, both aged 51, and Hassan, 24, had denied charges of murder and manslaughter but were convicted of the more serious offence following a 12-week trial which ended in July this year.
The trial heard evidence that Naila, 21, was killed during attempts to render her unconscious as family members attempted to drive out a harmful 'jinn' spirit.
Jurors also heard that Mumtaz, whose wife was six months pregnant, told police that she had tried to strangle herself at their home in Craythorne Avenue, Handsworth Wood, after becoming 'possessed' by the spirit.
Passing sentence on the four defendants, Mr Justice Keith accepted that they had not intended to kill Naila, who moved to the UK in 2008 after an arranged marriage in Pakistan.
Although the jury's guilty verdicts were consistent with a finding that the victim was deliberately smothered by one or more of the defendants as others held her down, the judge said the panel's findings did not explain why she was attacked.
During his sentencing remarks, Mr Justice Keith said: 'The four of you have been convicted of the murder of Naila Mumtaz - she was only 21 years old at the time of her death and had her life ahead of her.
'She was her parents' only daughter and her death has left a terrible gap in their lives.
'What aggravates the case is that Naila was pregnant at the time of her death, isolated from her family in a country unfamiliar to her, and spoke little if any English.'
Possible motives for the offence raised during the trial were that the defendants believed Naila's unborn child was not her husband's - or that she was possessed by a jinn sent from Pakistan.
The judge, who ruled that it was unlikely the defendants believed Naila was pregnant by another man, said: 'The other possibility explored in the course of the trial about why Naila was smothered was that the defendants believed that Naila had been possessed by a jinn, which had been sent from Pakistan by Naila's parents, and that they ... smothered her in order to get rid of the jinn.
Jailed: Mohammed Tauseef Mumtaz (left) was given a life sentence for the murder, along with his father Zia Ul-Haq (second from left), mother Salma Aslam (second from right), and brother-in-law Hammad Hassan (right)
'I regard this as a less unlikely explanation for what happened.'
The judge urged the prison authorities to house Mumtaz - who suffers from a severe disability - in the same cell as his father so he can be properly supported during his imprisonment.
Naila and all four defendants were living at the same house in Craythorne Avenue when paramedics were called to the property in the early hours of July 8, 2009.
Ambulance staff did all they could to save the 'ashen' and injured victim, who was found lying on a bed, but she was pronounced dead in hospital.
Jurors were told that numerous telephone calls were made to Naila's relatives in Pakistan, the emergency services and other individuals in the hours before she was taken to hospital.
During the calls, it was alleged that Ul-Haq claimed that a spirit had been sent from Pakistan, while a female at the house was allegedly heard to say: 'Don't call an ambulance yet - we will cure her ourselves'.
In his account to police, Mumtaz maintained that injuries to his wife's body were self-inflicted and claimed that a person was present at the house praying 'to get the spirit out of her'.
Killers: Mohammed Tauseef Mumtaz (left) and his parents, pictured before a previous court hearing in April, were all convicted of murdering Naila Mumtaz
Scene: Naila Mumtaz, who was six months pregnant was found smothered to death in this house in Birmingham in 2009
Murdered her because she was possessed by evil spirits? thats up there with the dog ate my homework
- cassandra , newport, 24/9/2012 17:20
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