BERLIN: A German court Tuesday sentenced a Pakistan-born couple to life in jail for the "honour killing" of their 19-year-old daughter, who had had sex before marriage.

The 52-year-old father was found guilty of strangling the teenager to death, and the 41-year-old mother was also jailed, as an accessory to murder, by the regional court in the western city of Darmstadt.

The Muslim parents had killed their daughter in January because she had been in a pre-marital relationship, the court was told.

The defence had sought a lesser sentence of manslaughter. The couple will be able to apply for parole after 15 years.

Related: Pakistani man strangles daughter to death 'for honour' in Germany

‘Honour killing’ is defined as: “killing of a female, and sometimes her love-interests and other associates, for supposed sexual or marital offenses, typically by her own relatives, with the justification being that the ‘offence’ has brought dishonour to the family.”

Such crimes are perpetrated for a wide range of offences, marital infidelity, pre-marital sex, flirting, refusing to enter into an arranged marriage, being the victim of sexual assault, seeking a divorce even from an abusive husband or allegedly committing adultery, can all be perceived as impugning the family honour.