Pakistani Couple In Italy Gets Life Sentence For Killing Their Daughter

A court in Italy has given the life sentence to the parents of an 18-year-old Pakistani girl for murdering their daughter after she refused to marry her cousin.

The deceased, identified as 18-year-old Saman Abbas, was living in Novellara, near Bologna, when she disappeared in May 2021. Her body was found in 2022 in an abandoned farmhouse near the fields where his father was employed.

A court in Reggio Emilia ruled that she was strangled to death by her uncle at her parents' order. She was last seen alive on surveillance video walking with her parents.

On Tuesday, the girl's parents, Shabbar Abbas and Nazia Shaheen, were sentenced to life in prison. And her uncle, Danish Hasnain, was given a 14-year prison term.

The family had flown back to Pakistan after the incident, and the father was extradited from Pakistan in August for the trial. Nazia was tried in absentia and is believed to be in Pakistan.

Saman had denounced her parents to the police and was placed in a shelter home in November 2020. However, she decided to visit her parents in April 2021 to pick up her documents and start a new life.

She had decided to live with her boyfriend, but her parents were against the move. She disappeared soon after the visit. Her boyfriend informed the police, but by the time the police managed to reach their house, the family had fled to Pakistan.

According to local media reports, she was killed between the nights of April 30 and May 1. The CCTV footage obtained from the house showed five people leaving the family home with shovels, crowbars, and buckets and returning a few hours later.

An investigation into the case led police to her body. The victim's brother later told the police that he had overheard his parents talking about the murder.

However, her father Shabbar has maintained that he is innocent and he too wants to know who killed his daughter.

The autopsy later revealed that the young woman had a broken neck bone. She had come to Italy with her parents while she was still a teenager. Her boyfriend told the police that Saman's parents wanted her to marry an older man in Pakistan, and they were against their relationship.

Arranged marriages are the norm in South Asia, and women going against their families in conservative countries like India and Pakistan is something that can get them killed.

Honour killings, known locally in Pakistan as karo-kari, relate to the homicide of a member of a family or social group by other members due to the belief the victim has brought dishonour upon the family or community.

Pakistan has the highest number of documented and estimated honour killings per capita of any country in the world, accounting for about one-fifth of the world's honour killings. Around 1,000 women are killed in the name of honour every year in Pakistan.