Italian court confirms convictions in Saman Abbas murder case

ROME: Italy’s highest court has upheld the murder convictions of five relatives of Saman Abbas, an 18-year-old of Pakistani origin who was killed in 2021 after refusing an arranged marriage.

The Supreme Court of Cassation, the country’s top appeals court, confirmed the life sentences handed to Abbas’ parents, Shabbar Abbas and Nazia Shaheen, as well as to her cousins Ijaz Ikram and Nomanul Haq. It also upheld a 22-year prison term for her uncle, Danish Hasnain. The ruling marks the final verdict in the case, five years after the killing in Novellara, Italy.

Abbas had opposed her family’s plan in 2020 to marry her to a cousin in Pakistan. While still underage, she sought assistance from social services and was moved to a shelter home in November that year. She also filed a police complaint against her parents, but later returned to them on April 11, 2021.

Police began looking for her on May 5, 2021, after officers visited the family home and found it empty, prompting an investigation. The inquiry found that her parents had left for Pakistan without her. Investigators also recovered footage from a nearby security camera that raised alarm. Video recorded on April 29, 2021, showed five people leaving the house carrying shovels, a crowbar and a bucket, then returning about two and a half hours later.

Both parents fled to Pakistan after the killing and were later extradited to Italy.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said she agreed with the court’s decision and described the case as a painful judicial process that had now ended. In a social media post, she said:

No verdict can bring her life back, but it is right that those responsible for this barbaric crime have been definitively convicted.

Meloni also said:

"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"

She added:

"My thoughts go to Saman. May she finally rest in peace"

Last month, another case involving a Pakistani couple in the Italian city of Reggio Emilia was reported. The pair were sentenced to two years in prison for forcing their 22-year-old daughter to undergo an abortion and pressuring her to marry her cousin in Pakistan. The woman, whose identity was not disclosed, reportedly resisted and informed Italian police after years of abuse.