Family gets life after murdering pregnant wife in ‘exorcism’

A MAN and three members of his family have been jailed for life for murdering 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 being jailed for a minimum of 13 years for the murder of Naila Mumtaz, who was smothered at her Birmingham home in 2009.

The killer’s brother-in-law, Hammad Hassan, 24, was also jailed for at least 13 years, while Mumtaz’s mother and father, Salma Aslam and Zia Ul-Haq, both 51, were both given minimum terms of 15 years by a judge at Birmingham Crown Court yesterday.

All four had denied both murder and manslaughter, but were convicted of the more serious charge following a 12-week trial that ended in July this year.

The trial heard evidence that Naila Mumtaz, 21, was killed during attempts to render her unconscious as family members tried to drive out a harmful “jinn” spirit. She was six months’ pregnant at the time.

Jurors heard that Mumtaz told police his wife had tried to strangle herself at their home in Handsworth Wood, north-west Birmingham, after becoming “possessed” by the spirit.

Passing sentence on the four, Mr Justice Keith accepted that they had not intended to kill Ms Mumtaz, who moved to the UK in 2008 after an arranged marriage in Pakistan.

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.

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 Ms Mumtaz’s unborn child was not her husband’s or that she was possessed by a jinn sent from Pakistan. The judge ruled that it was unlikely the defendants believed Ms Mumtaz was pregnant by another man.

He said: “The other possibility explored in the course of the trial about why Naila was smothered was that the defendants believed she 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. I regard this as a less unlikely explanation for what happened.”

The judge urged the prison authorities to house Mumtaz – who has a severe disability – in the same cell as his father so he can be properly supported during his imprisonment.

Ms Mumtaz and all four defendants were living at the same house when paramedics were called to the property in the early hours of 8 July, 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.

In a statement issued through West Midlands Police after the sentences were announced, Ms Mumtaz’s relatives described her as a “happy, confident and beautiful” young woman.

They said: “We are very grateful for the jury using plain common sense in bringing the perpetrators to justice.

“Naila will always be in our hearts and prayers.”