The family, including the husband of a Pakistani woman in the United Kingdom, has been held after being found guilty of killing wife Naila Mumtaz. The Birmingham court is to deliberate on sentencing, the Daily Mail reported, in a case that has highlighted “honor killings” in the country after the family believed Mumtaz was possessed by “evil spirits.” 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 all found guilty murder earlier this week. Following the 12-week trial at the Birmingham Crown Court, jurors heard that Mohammed Tauseef, who was accused of smothering his 6-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, INSA reported. 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, was quoted by INSA as saying, “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.” The case has left much of the UK frustrated and concerned over reported increases in violence toward minority women, but Islamic leaders were quick to point out that this killing was “un-Islamic” and across all Muslim groups widespread condemnation of Mumtaz's murder was strong. One Birmingham Muslim resident, Aamir Tarek, who followed the case, told Bikyamasr.com that he hoped “this would not be seen as Muslim violence. “This is a bunch of crazy people who did something so terrible and wrong, but it has nothing to do with Islam. Islam doesn't teach about spirits and evil like this,” he added.
