Nazia Shaheen, the mother of Saman Abbas, a teenager murdered by her family in Italy in 2021, has been apprehended in Azad Kashmir after evading capture for three years, as reported by Italian news agency Ansa on Friday.
Saman Abbas, an 18-year-old Italian-Pakistani woman, disappeared from Reggio Emilia, Italy, on April 30, 2021. Her remains were discovered in November 2022.
Following the murder, Nazia Shaheen, 51, fled Italy, prompting the issuance of an international arrest warrant, according to Ansa. Sources indicated that her arrest was facilitated through cooperation between Interpol and the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).
Shaheen has been transferred to Islamabad, where she appeared in court on Friday to begin extradition proceedings, Ansa reported.
In August 2023, her husband, Shabbar Abbas, who had also fled to Pakistan after the murder, was extradited to Italy and is currently imprisoned there.
In December 2023, a court in Reggio Emilia sentenced the couple in absentia to life imprisonment for homicide. Italian judges suggested that Saman Abbas’s mother “may have been the person who actually carried out the murder,” according to Ansa.
Contrary to the widely held belief that the murder was motivated by Saman’s refusal to marry an older man in Pakistan, the judges determined the killing was a “spur of the moment” act, triggered by anger over the victim’s intention to leave home and live with her boyfriend, as reported by the Italian agency.
Additionally, the victim’s uncle, who was extradited from France for the trial, received a 14-year sentence, while her two cousins were acquitted.
