He denied any involvement with the disappearance of Saman Abbas, the uncle of the 18-year-old Pakistani Danish Hasnain, questioned by the investigating magistrate Luca Ramponi after being extradited from France, where he fled before being arrested following the disappearance of the girl from Novellara (Reggio Emilia).
The 34 year old, listened to for about two and a half hours on video link from the Reggio Emilia prison where he is being held, said he was "framed".
The carabinieri and the Reggio Emilia Public Prosecutor's Office, on the other hand, consider him the material author and organizer of the murder of the girl, who disappeared and was never found again after opposing an arranged marriage.
"He declares unaware of what could have happened to Saman. Precisely in consideration of the excellent and affectionate relations he had with his niece, he considered it plausible that she had left voluntarily", explained the lawyer Lalla Gherpelli, defender of the 34-year-old Pakistani.
Hasnain "is very keen to proclaim his innocence through the press and the media." And furthermore, even without wanting to accuse anyone, he "ventilates the possibility" that Saman's brother has made the statements against him "frightened and conditioned by his father Shabbar, also in consideration of a potential economic advantage that would derive from his sentence. In Pakistan, in fact, the two brothers are co-owners of a piece of land and if he were convicted he would be entitled to Shabbar ".
Also for this reason the suspect "asked the prosecutor for help to investigate, investigate and clarify". He would answer all the questions, "with consistency and tranquility, without his voice ever being disturbed." Also to that relating to the video that portrays him with a shovel and crowbar together with two cousins, on April 29, when according to investigators they went to dig the grave in Saman: "He said they went to work in the garden".
