Four jailed for murder of 'possessed' Birmingham woman Naila Mumtaz, originally from Pakistan, died at her home in Handsworth Wood, Birmingham, in July 2009. Photograph: West Midlands police/PA A husband 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, 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, who are both aged 51, and Hassan, 24, had denied murder and manslaughter but were convicted of the more serious charge following a 12-week trial that ended in July. 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 she had tried to strangle herself at their home in Craythorne Avenue, Handsworth Wood, after becoming "possessed." 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. The judge, who ruled 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. I regard this as a less unlikely explanation for what happened.