An Italian appeals court has upheld life sentences for a Pakistani couple convicted of murdering their 18-year-old daughter, Saman Abbas, in a so-called honor killing after she refused an arranged marriage.
The case shocked many Italians and became a symbol of the brutal mistreatment of immigrant women who rebelled against inflexible family rules.
The appeals court in the northern city of Bologna said that Saman Abbas, whose body was found at a farmhouse in 2022, 18 months after she disappeared, was killed with the participation of the whole family.
The court upheld a life sentence for both the teenager’s father, Shabbir Abbas, and her mother, Nazia Shaheen. It also sentenced to life in prison those who had been previously cleared by a lower court.
Saman’s uncle, Danish Hasnain, was also sentenced to 22 years in prison for his involvement in the murder. He had been previously given a 14-year sentence.
Saman Abbas moved from Pakistan to Novellara in northern Italy as a teenager and quickly adopted a more Western lifestyle. She stopped wearing a headscarf and began dating a young man of her choice. A photo posted to social media showing the couple kissing in Bologna reportedly enraged her parents, who had planned for her to marry a cousin in Pakistan.
She was last seen alive on April 30, 2021, walking with her parents near the watermelon fields where her father worked. Her body was discovered 18 months later, in November 2022, buried near an abandoned farmhouse in the same area. An autopsy revealed a broken neck bone, likely from strangulation.
Prosecutors believe she was killed on May 1, 2021. Days later, her parents fled to Pakistan. Her father was later extradited to Italy; her mother, convicted in absentia, was arrested in May 2023 after three years on the run.
