(AP) An Italian appeals court Friday upheld life sentences for a Pakistani couple convicted of murdering their 18-year-old daughter in a so-called honor killing after she refused an arranged marriage. The case shocked many Italians and became a symbol of the brutal mistreatment of immigrant women who rebel against inflexible family rules.
The appeals court in the northern city of Bologna said that Saman Abbas, whose body was found at a farmhouse in 2022, 18 months after she disappeared, was killed with the participation of the whole family.
The court upheld a life sentence for both the teenager’s father, Shabbir Abbas, and her mother, Nazia Shaheen. It also sentenced to life in prison two cousins who had been previously cleared by a lower court.
