Nalia Mumtaz was born in Pakistan and entered into an arranged marriage with her husband, then a student at Wolverhampton University, in August 2007. She came to Britain for the first time in May 2008 and moved into his parents' three-bedroom home in Birmingham, the Daily Mail reported. Mumtaz was pronounced dead after being rushed to hospital by paramedics who found her lying lifeless on a bed at the family home in July 2009.

Her husband Mohammed Mumtaz, 24, his father Zia Ul Haq and mother Salma Aslam, both 51, and his 24-year-old brother-in-law Hammad Hassan, have all denied charges of murder and manslaughter. At the Birmingham Crown Court Tuesday, the prosecutor described the defendants as a "traditional Muslim family with an emphasis on religious observance".