Conviction in Pakistani girl’s ‘honour killing’

ROME, Nov 13: The father and two brothers-in-law of a young Pakistani woman were sentenced to 30 years in prison on Tuesday for her murder last year in a so-called “honour killing,” a lawyer for the family said.

The stabbed body of 21-year-old Hina Saleem was found buried in the garden of the family home in Sarezzo, near the northeastern city of Brescia, on August 11, 2006.

An uncle convicted of helping to conceal the body was jailed for two years and eight months, lawyer Alberto Bordone told AFP, adding that the sentences would be appealed.

Saleem’s Italian boyfriend Giuseppe Tempini was provisionally to be awarded 20,000 euros.Reacting to the sentences, the victim’s mother screamed out: “(T)hey’re killing him (her husband).” She burst out of the courtroom screaming in Urdu and “confused Italian” before being taken to hospital in an ambulance, the ANSA news agency reported.

Bordone said he was awaiting Judge Silvia Milesi’s justifications for the sentences, expected by January 20, before launching an appeal. “I hope we can obtain lighter sentences,” Bordone said.

Saleem, who reportedly refused an arranged marriage with a cousin, had been estranged from her family and lived with Tempini.–AFP
Source: Dawn
Date:11/14/2007