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Pakistani man sentenced to jail for daughter's "honour killing"

Nov 13, 2007, 12:53 GMT

Brescia, Italy - A Pakistani man convicted in Italy of murdering his 21-year-old daughter after she refused an arranged marriage has been sentenced to 30 years in jail along with two other male relatives involved in the killing. Hina Saleem's body, the throat slit, was found in August 2006 buried in a garden of the family home in Sarezzo near the northern city Brescia where a judge pronounced the sentences on Tuesday. The case shocked Italy and sparked debate on the integration of Muslims in the country after Mohammed Saleem confessed he had killed his daughter for disgracing her family and Islam. The murder also provoked reaction in Pakistan where the Catholic Archbishop of Lahore Lawrence Saldanha condemned the practice of family 'honour killings,' towards which he said authorities in the Asian country often turned a blind eye. Prosecutors allege Hina - who dressed in Western clothes, worked in a pizzeria and lived with an Italian boyfriend - was lured back to the family home where her father and the two other men killed her. Hina's mother who attended Tuesday's court session wearing a dark green headscarf, reportedly broke down when Judge Silvia Melisi read out the sentences and was taken in an ambulance to hospital. Hina's boyfriend Giuseppe Tempini who first reported her missing, participated as a plaintiff in the trial and on Tuesday his lawyer welcomed the sentences. 'The father said what he did was an honour killing in an attempt to win the solidarity of the Pakistani community, but what the court has recognized is that this was a premeditated murder,' lawyer Loredana Gemelli said after the sentencing which like the trial was held behind closed doors. The 30-year jail sentences represent the highest penalty possible in the abbreviated trial proceedings chosen by the defendants in which partial admission of guilt made them eligible for lighter sentences. Life imprisonment is the maximum sentence possible in Italy. © 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur

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kbaskinNov 13th, 2007 - 19:18:39

Can't we drag these people kicking & screaming into another century? Let's not even try for the 21st century. I'd be happy to settle for the 17th.

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ERSNov 13th, 2007 - 20:11:19

Maybe this is the closest thing to justice that can be had for this crime.

Ellen R. Sheeley, Author
'Reclaiming Honor in Jordan'

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