Italy confirms sentences for those convicted in the murder of teenager Saman Abbas

The young woman from Pakistan settled into northern Italy after arriving as a teen and adopted Western customs, which provoked deep resentment within her family.

Saman Abbas.

(photo credit: FACEBOOK)

ByDANIELLE GREYMAN-KENNARD

JULY 16, 2026 13:27

Updated: JULY 16, 2026 14:03

Italy's Court of Cassation upheld the prison terms handed to relatives convicted in the honor killing of 18-year-old Saman Abbas on Wednesday, five years after the Pakistani teenager was slain for rejecting an arranged marriage, according to Italian authorities.

The first criminal section of the court dismissed appeals from Abbas family members and confirmed four life sentences handed down on April 18, 2025, by the Bologna Court of Appeal along with the 22-year term given to her uncle Danish Hasnian.

Hasnain first received a 14-year term under a plea agreement but later had the sentence raised to 22 years.

Abbas's parents, Habbar Abbas and Nazia Shaheen, along with cousins Noman Ul Haq and Ijaz Ikram, each received life sentences for murder and hiding a body.

Attorney General Marco Dall'Olio of the Court of Cassation stressed that the case involved "not a crime of impulse but a premeditated act. That Saman could not decide for herself is clear, manifest, the reconstruction of the facts is unequivocal. Saman, even though she was an adult, could not decide for herself about her life, she could not have a life of her own. A chilling story, a concerted and premeditated act."

Investigators found Abbas's remains after questioning her uncle in Paris

Abbas was killed during the night of April 30 to May 1, 2021, in Novellara di Reggio Emilia. Her remains were recovered 18 months after her boyfriend reported her disappearance.

Authorities pinpointed the site of Abbas's body once her uncle was held and questioned in Paris. Both parents escaped to Pakistan soon after the killing and were returned in 2023 following in-absentia convictions in 2021. Her cousins were taken into custody in Spain.

Abbas arrived in northern Italy from Pakistan during her teenage years and readily took on Western habits, which fueled family anger. She stopped wearing an Islamic head covering and shared online images of herself with her boyfriend, to whom she confided fears for her safety after declining her parents' order to wed an older cousin in Pakistan.

She had lived for several months under social services supervision before going back to the family residence. Some accounts suggested the return was meant to be short, only to retrieve personal papers.

PM Meloni: 'A painful judicial saga comes to a close'

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni stated that "With the final verdict for the murder of Saman Abbas, a painful judicial saga comes to a close. Saman, a young woman of Pakistani origin in Italy, was killed by her parents and some relatives after she opposed a forced marriage and asserted her right to freely choose her own future.

"No verdict can bring her life back, but it is right that those responsible for this barbaric crime have been definitively convicted. 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.

"My thoughts go to Saman. May she finally rest in peace."