Now it's official: the body found on November 18, 2022 in Novellara (Reggio Emilia) belongs to Saman Abbas .
Almost two months later, the identity of the body was found by a relative of the 18-year-old Pakistani woman , buried in an abandoned farmhouse a few hundred meters from the family home.
"She was identified by a dental anomaly, thanks to photos and videos," says Barbara Iannucelli, a lawyer who assists the Penelope association, a civil party in the trial which will begin in February and which will see five of Saman's family members in the dock.
"The hyoid bone - adds Iannucelli - is fractured on the left side and histological tests are needed to establish whether it is pre or post portem". The fracture of the bone located in the anterior part of the neck supports the hypothesis of strangulation .
According to investigators, the girl was killed by her family on April 30, 2021 after objecting to an arranged marriage. Saman was engaged to a man of her age, her family didn't like her life and her western way of dressing .
For the prosecutors, the material executor of the crime, planned by the whole family, is his uncle Danish Hasnain. The man is in prison in Italy as are two cousins of the 18-year-old. Instead, Saman's father, Shabbar Abbas, was arrested in Pakistan , his wife fugitive.
In recent months, the content of a telephone interception dating back to June 2021 has been released in which Saman's father, who had already fled to Pakistan with his wife, speaks to a relative of his: "I killed my daughter," he says, " for me the dignity of others is not more important than my own. I left my son in Italy, I killed my daughter and I came, I don't give a damn about anyone. I'm already dead, I killed her, I killed her for my dignity and my honour . We killed her." After the arrest, however, he told the Pakistani judge that his daughter would still be alive in Italy. Possibility definitively excluded by the latest investigations.
