Parents of a Pakistani teenager have been sentenced for life by a court in Italy after it convicted them of murdering their daughter for refusing to marry a cousin in their homeland. On Tuesday, the parents, Shabbar Abbas and Nazia Shaheen were sentenced life imprisonment while the victim’s uncle Danish Hasnain, was handed a 14-year prison term by a court in Reggio Emilia, according to a Guardian report.
In November 2022, 18-year-old Saman Abbas’ body was dug up in an abandoned farmhouse in northern Italy near the fields where her father worked, a year and a half after she was last seen on surveillance video walking nearby with her parents.
Italian prosecutors argued that Saman was killed by her family on May 1, 2021.
According to the Guardian report, she had emigrated as a teenager from Pakistan to a farm town, Novellara, in Italy’s northern region of Emilia-Romagna.
Saman had given up on wearing a headscarf in Italy and began dating a young man of her choice. She also posted a picture kissing her Pakistani boyfriend on a street in the regional capital, Bologna, on social media.
Italian investigators said that the kiss enraged Saman's parents who wanted her to marry a cousin in Pakistan.
The victim had reportedly told her boyfriend that she feared for her life because she refused to marry an older man in her homeland.
The teen's autopsy revealed that she had a broken neck bone, possibly caused by strangulation.
Her father, Shabar was extradited from Pakistan in August and professed his innocence during a tearful statement to the court before deliberations. Nazia was tried in absentia and is believed to be in Pakistan.
Two of her cousins tried in the case were found not guilty and the court ordered their release from jail.