- The teenager's mother is now awaiting extradition.
- Nazia Shaheen is in police custody in Islamabad.
- An Italian court sentenced her to life imprisonment.
LAHORE: Pakistan police have arrested a woman who was convicted of murdering her 18-year-old daughter in Italy for reasons of honour.
Punjab Police spokesperson said the suspect, Nazia Shaheen, was arrested from Kharian. She was accused of killing her daughter with the help of her husband in Italy, the police spokesman said.
According to the Italian website, Oggie, the 51-year-old man is awaiting extradition while in police custody in Islamabad. An Italian court sentenced her to life in prison for ordering the murder of her daughter in 2021.
“Nazia has resided in Pakistan since May 1, 2021 after fleeing Italy with her husband Shabbar Abbas following the murder. Interpol and Pakistani police located her in a village. “Her husband was arrested (earlier), but she was still at large,” the post says.
The Pakistani couple was sentenced to life imprisonment by an Italian court on December 19, 2023 for the murder of their daughter after she rejected an arranged marriage.
Saman was living in Novellara, near Bologna, when she disappeared in May 2021, having rejected her family's demand that she marry a cousin in Pakistan the previous year.
A court in Reggio Emilia, central Italy, ruled that the parents ordered the murder and that an uncle had strangled his niece.
The uncle was sentenced to 14 years after accepting a plea deal, while two cousins were acquitted in a matter that shocked the country.
Saman had reported her parents to the police and social workers placed her in a shelter in November 2020.
But she visited her family in April 2021, intending to pick up her passport and start a new life with her boyfriend, of whom her family disapproved.
She disappeared shortly after and the police, alerted by her boyfriend, raided the family home in May, but the parents had already left for Pakistan.
The young woman was likely murdered on the night of April 30 to May 1, according to surveillance footage showing five people leaving the family home with shovels, crowbars and buckets, before returning two and a half hours later.
A year later, Saman's body was found in an abandoned farm with his neck broken.
Her brother told police that he had heard their father talking about the murder and that it was the uncle who killed his sister.
The father, Shabbar, was arrested in Pakistan and extradited to Italy in August 2023.
The uncle, Danish Hasnain, was handed over by French authorities while the cousins were arrested in Spain.
