Pakistani Couple Get Life Sentence For Murdering Daughter Opposed to Arranged Marriage in Italy

An Italian court punished a Pakistani couple to life imprisonment Tuesday for the 2021 murder of their daughter who refused an arranged marriage with a cousin in Pakistan.

The deceased Saman Abbas (18) disappeared from her home at Novellara near Bolognara in May 2021 after she refused to agree to her parent’s proposal to marry a cousin in Pakistan.

Before that Abbas had denounced her parents to the police and social workers placed her in a shelter in November 2020.

In April 2021, she visited her home to pick up her passport and start a new life with her boyfriend, whom her family did not accept.

As per the findings of the investigation, her parents ordered the murder, and an uncle throttled his niece.

The uncle accepted his crime, and was sentenced to 14 years in jail.

Abbas was probably killed between April 30 to May 1, 2021. Her body was found in an abandoned farmhouse with a broken neck.

Her brother revealed that he had overheard his father talking about the murder and that it was the uncle who had killed his sister.

The deceased’s father, Shabbar Abbas, was arrested in Pakistan and extradited to Italy in August 2023. The uncle, Danish Hasnain, was turned over by French authorities. But the mother, Nazia Shaheen, is still absconding.