Husband, family of 'pregnant' Pakistani bride in UK given life sentences for murder

London, Sep 25 (ANI): Family members of a pregnant Muslim woman in the UK have been given life sentences for her murder over claims that she was possessed by an evil spirit. Naila Mumtaz's husband, Mohammed Tauseef Mumtaz, 25, his mother and father, Salma Aslam and Zia Ul Haq, both aged 51, and his brother-in-law, Hammad Hussan, 24, were found guilty of murder after a three-month trial in a UK court. According to Sky News, Naila, 21, who moved to the UK in 2008 after an arranged marriage in Pakistan, died at her home in Birmingham's Handsworth Wood district in July 2009. She was six months pregnant at that time. A prosecutor of the case said that the in-laws of Naila believed that she was "possessed" by evil spirits known as "jinn". Mumtaz said that Naila tried to suffocate herself by putting her hand in her mouth and tried to strangle herself, and claimed that his wife's death was "like a suicide", However, he would now be serving a minimum of 13 years behind bars, while his parents were given minimum terms of 15 years each, and Hussan was handed over a 13-year sentence, the report said. "Naila was a pretty, outgoing young woman who was soon to become a mother for the first time. It is unthinkable that those who she was closest to would take her life in the belief that she had been possessed by evil spirits," the report quoted Naila's family, as saying in a statement after the judgment. (ANI)