Six siblings from a "traditional Asian Muslim family" in Lancashire have been jailed after attempting to kidnap the white girlfriend of one of their sisters, threatening to kill her because she had "messed with the wrong Muslims".
Sentencing them to between three-and-a-half and six years in prison, the judge said they had been motivated by religious and racial hatred as well as disapproval of their sister's sexuality.
"This case is about power and control," Judge Graham Knowles, QC, told the family at Preston crown court on Friday. "It's about striking terror into the heart, in order to control not just the body but also the will."
Almost three years ago Nazma Ditta, one of nine children from Blackburn, began a secret relationship with Sarah Harrison when both women worked at a clothes shop in Blackburn, Preston crown court heard.
Unhappy that Nazma, now 28, was in a same sex relationship – and with a white non-Muslim woman – six of Nazma's siblings plotted to break up the relationship. They claimed a teacher at a mosque had told them to "take action now or it might be too late" and had given permission "to be violent", the court heard.
The family wanted Nazma to enter into an arranged marriage with a cousin or another man, and discussed putting her on a plane to Pakistan, the judge noted. They concocted the plot via the online text messaging service WhatsApp, referring to it as "our mission as a family".
Three of Nazma's sisters, one wearing a full face veil, were caught on CCTV kicking and punching Harrison, 35, after she finished work at USC Clothing in Blackburn town centre on 20 June last year.
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