The Supreme Court of Cassation in Italy has finalized the murder convictions and sentences of five family members of Saman Abbas, an 18-year-old of Pakistani origin who was killed in 2021 after refusing an arranged marriage.
The decision from the court, which is Italy’s top court of appeal, upheld life sentences for the teenager’s parents Shabbar Abbas and Nazia Shaheen.
The court also upheld life sentences for her cousins, Ijaz Ikram and Nomanul Haq, alongside a 22-year prison sentence for her uncle, Danish Hasnain.
According to reports from the Italian news agency ANSA, the ruling brings the legal proceedings regarding the murder to a close.
Abbas was killed in the spring of 2021 in the town of Novellara, located in northern Italy. The conflict began in 2020 when she resisted her family’s plans to marry her to a cousin residing in Pakistan.
While still a minor, Abbas reached out to social services for protection, and in November 2020, authorities moved her to a shelter home. During that period, Abbas filed a report against her parents with the police. However, she chose to return to the family home on April 11, 2021.
On May 5, 2021, police officers visited the family residence to conduct a check, only to find the house entirely empty. The discovery prompted law enforcement to initiate an investigation. Investigators established that the teenager’s parents had departed for Pakistan without her.
Police recovered security camera footage from April 29, 2021, showing five individuals walking away from the family home carrying tools, including shovels, a crowbar, and a bucket. The group returned to the house approximately two and a half hours later.
Following the murder, both parents fled to Pakistan, but they were eventually arrested and extradited back to Italy to face trial.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni publicly agreed with the court’s ruling, describing the conclusion of the case on X. “No verdict can bring her life back, but it is right that those responsible for this barbaric crime have been definitively convicted,” Meloni wrote.
The Prime Minister stated that the country will not accept justifications for such actions based on tradition or belief. “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,” Meloni said, adding, “My thoughts go to Saman. May she finally rest in peace.”
The verdict comes alongside other legal actions targeting forced marriages within the country. Last month, another Pakistani couple residing in the Italian city of Reggio Emilia received a two-year prison sentence. Italian courts convicted the parents for forcing their 22-year-old daughter to undergo an abortion and attempting to coerce her into a marriage with her cousin in Pakistan.
The daughter, whose identity was not disclosed, had reported her parents to the police after experiencing years of abuse.
