Thaindian News

London, July 10 (IANS) A court in Birmingham held the husband, in-laws and a relative guilty of killing a six-month pregnant Pakistani woman as they believed she was possessed by “evil spirits”.

Naila Mumtaz’s husband, Mohammed Tauseef Mumtaz, 25, his parents, Zia Ul-Haq and Salma Aslam, both aged 51, and his brother-in-law, Hammad Hussan, 24, were found guilty of killing her, Daily Mail reported Tuesday.

Following a 12-week trial at Birmingham Crown Court, jurors heard that Mohammed Tauseef, who was accused of smothering his six-month pregnant wife, told police she tried to strangle herself and may have been “possessed” by an evil spirit.

The court was told that he claimed his wife’s death was “like a suicide” and that he had been “similarly possessed” at the city’s coroner’s court after her death.

All four defendants denied murdering Mumtaz at her home in Craythorne Avenue, Handsworth Wood, Birmingham, in the early hours of July 8, 2009.

Wendy Bounds, a lawyer from the West Midlands Crown Prosecution Service complex casework unit, said: “Naila Mumtaz, a kind-hearted and beautiful young woman living in Pakistan with her parents, agreed to enter into an arranged marriage with the defendant, Mohammed Tauseef Mumtaz.

“She was aware that he suffered from a physical disability, but she was not put off by his appearance, taking the kind-hearted view that all living things had the same value.

“However, the jury today found that her husband and his family did not share her values.”