She is only 12 years old but has already been betrothed to a boy, a 22-year-old Pakistani, brother of her mother's new partner, an Italian originally from Salento who, after converting to Islam, got married and returned with husband to live in Germany.
There the child was persuaded to wear a veil, to wear a bracelet with the Koran and to allow all her movements to be tracked.
A story that developed between Puglia and Germany: only the timely intervention of the natural father and therefore of the Prosecutor's Office and of the Juvenile Court and of the police chief of Lecce meant that any arranged marriage project was stopped in the bud.
The judges suspended the parental authority of the girl's mother and entrusted it to the paternal grandparents who live in the province of Lecce. The measure is based on the real danger, assessed by the magistrates, that the child could be brought to Pakistan to get married.
The story of the child betrothed begins in Germany, the country where her parents moved for work. According to what has been ascertained, the mother later decided to rebuild her life by marrying a local man known on social media in Pakistan, with an Islamic rite. Also in Germany, the woman then returned to live with her new partner, and it is in Germany that her ex also remained, so as not to distance herself from the children entrusted to the woman.
The turning point came only when the 12-year-old's father learned of the promise of marriage to be celebrated. Once they all returned to Puglia, at different times and for different reasons, the man was quick to ask, through three lawyers, for the intervention of the Italian authorities who, after having studied every detail and obtained a reliable reconstruction of the facts, based also on listening to the little girl, they ordered the measures deemed urgent and necessary.
The Juvenile Court has issued a decree suspending the mother's parental responsibility and has established that meetings with the daughter must only take place in a protected environment. The commissioner blocked the passport and the ordinary prosecutor also launched an investigation for coercion or induction into marriage, mistreatment in the family, abduction and detention of a minor abroad, abandonment of a minor. Possible hypotheses of sexual abuse are also being examined by the investigators.
