Remains of Italian teenage victim in ‘honour killing’ case identified
A lawyer for a rights group said on Wednesday that the remains of Italian teenage victim in “honour killing” case identified. The lawyer further told that Italian authorities had located the remains of an 18-year-old girl who had been missing for more than a year after refusing to travel to Pakistan for an arranged marriage.
After human bones were discovered in November 2022 close to Saman Abbas’ family house in Novellara, she was confirmed by dental records, according to attorney Barbara Iannucelli, who was quoted by Ansa news agency.
Abbas was last spotted in April 2021. Next month, five members of her family—including her father and uncle—will be tried for a fictitious “honor killing” that shocked Italy.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni confirmed that there was no longer any doubt about the identity of the victim.
“Let justice be done for an innocent young woman who only wanted to live out her freedom,” she said on Twitter, along with a newspaper photo of Abbas wearing a red headband and matching red lipstick.
According to Iannucelli, a lawyer for the Penelope rights organization specialising in cases involving missing individuals, a fracture to a bone at the front of the neck would confirm the hypothesis that Abbas was strangled.
The family’s outrage, according to the prosecution, was caused by learning that Abbas had a partner in Italy.
They claim that she was murdered when she went back to the family home in northern Italy to get some paperwork after temporarily residing there while being looked after by social services.
Her father, Shabbir Abbas, was arrested in his village in eastern Pakistan in November on suspicion of the killing. He has always denied that his daughter was dead.
Her uncle was extradited from France and faced trial with two of her cousins. Her mother remains at large and is believed to be in Pakistan.
