After being missing for three years, the mother of Saman Abbas, an Italian adolescent killed by her family in 2021, has been apprehended in Azad Kashmir, according to a report released on Friday by the Italian news agency Ansa.
The body of the 18-year-old Italian-Pakistani woman was discovered in November 2022 after she vanished from the Italian city of Reggio Emilia on April 30, 2021.
An international arrest warrant was issued for 51-year-old Nazia Shaheen, who had left Italy following the murder, Ansa continued.
The arrest was made possible by Interpol and the Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) collaboration, the article added, citing sources.
Ansa stated that she has been relocated to Islamabad and that she appeared in court on Friday to begin the extradition process.
Her spouse, Shabbar Abbas, who also traveled to Pakistan subsequent to the crime, was extradited to Italy in August 2023 and is incarcerated there.
A Reggio Emilia court judged the couple guilty of homicide in December 2023 and sentenced them to life in absentia.
According to Ansa, the victim’s mother “may have been the person who actually carried out the murder,” according to the Italian courts’ ruling.
The justices also disregarded the commonly held theory that Ms. Saman’s refusal to wed an older man in Pakistan served as the driving force behind the murder. The Italian agency further stated that the homicide was “spur of the moment” and that the perpetrator was furious because the victim wanted to move out of her house and live with her lover.
Her two cousins were found not guilty, but the victim’s uncle, who had been deported from France to participate in the trial, received a 14-year term as well.
