An Italian court upheld two life sentences on Friday for parents found guilty of honor killing their 18-year-old daughter for refusing an arranged marriage to her older cousin, according to international media reports.
Saman Abbas’s body was discovered buried in a farmhouse near her father’s work in 2022, 18 months after she was reported missing. It was later discovered by police that the young woman had been murdered by her family. Her neck was broken, and investigators believe she was strangled.
Her body was found only a few days after she was killed, and while she was still classified as missing, her parents flew from Milan to Pakistan.
Abbas’s mother, Nazia Shaheen, father Shabbir Abbas, uncle Danish Hasnain, and two cousins were also sentenced for her killing.
Hasnian was originally sentenced to 14 years imprisonment but has since been resentenced to 22 years.
Shabbir Abbas was extradited from Pakistan to Italy to serve his sentence, while Abbas’s mother was tried in absentia - and was eventually arrested near the Kashmir border after escaping prosecution for three years. Her uncle and cousins fled to France and Spain but were also later arrested.
The family denied any wrongdoing.
Shabbar Abbas told the courts in an earlier hearing that "never in my life did I think of killing my daughter".
The life of Saman Abbas
Abbas moved to northern Italy from Pakistan as a teenager, where she quickly adapted to Western culture - a move which reportedly deeply angered her parents.
She chose not to wear a head covering, according to the Associated Press, and posted photos of her kissing her boyfriend in the street.
She had told that boyfriend that she was afraid for her life because she refused her parents’ demand to marry her older cousin back in Pakistan.
She spent several months living under the care of social services, according to BBC News, but eventually returned to her family home.