Italian Supreme Court upholds murder convictions of family members of Pakistani girl killed for refusing arranged marriage

The Italian Supreme Court on Wednesday delivered its final verdict in the case of a young woman killed five years ago for refusing an arranged marriage, making final the murder convictions of five of her relatives, Italy’s leading news agency ANSA reported.

Saman Abbas, an 18-year-old girl of Pakistani origin living in Italy, was murdered by her family in Italy’s Novellara in the spring of 2021 for refusing an arranged marriage in Pakistan.

The Supreme Court of Cassation — Italy’s highest court of appeal — upheld the murder convictions and life sentences of Abbas’ parents, Shabbar Abbas and Nazia Shaheen, as well as her cousins Ijaz Ikram and Nomanul Haq, and also upheld the 22-year prison sentence of her uncle, Danish Hasnain, according to ANSA.

Abbas had in 2020 rebelled against her family’s plan to marry her to a cousin in Pakistan.

While still a minor, she sought help from social services and was moved to a shelter home in November. She also reported her parents to the police, but returned to them on April 11, 2021.

Police began a search for her on May 5, 2021, when officers visited her house and found nobody, triggering an investigation.

The officers then discovered that the girl’s parents had left for Pakistan without her, and found images from a nearby security camera that made them fear the worst.

Security footage from April 29, 2021, showed five people walking away from the house carrying shovels, a crowbar and a bucket, before returning about two and a half hours later.

Both parents had fled to Pakistan following the murder but were later extradited to Italy, ANSA added.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Wednesday expressed her agreement with the verdict, saying that a “painful judicial saga” had come to a close.

In a post on social media, Meloni stated, “No verdict can bring her life back, but it is right that those responsible for this barbaric crime have been definitively convicted.”

The Italian premier stressed that “in Italy, there is no room for those who presume to deny, in the name of supposed cultural or religious justifications, a woman’s freedom, dignity, and life. These are non-negotiable principles from which we will never retreat”.

“My thoughts go to Saman. May she finally rest in peace,” she added.

Last month, another Pakistani couple living in the Italian city of Reggio Emilia were sentenced to two years in prison for forcing their 22-year-old daughter to abort and coercing her into marrying her cousin in Pakistan, ANSA said.

The young woman, who was not identified, reportedly rebelled and reported her parents to the Italian police after years of abuse. ...