Saman Abbas exhumed the body found in Novellara

The body found in Novellara, on the indication of Saman Abbas’ uncle – and which is presumed to belong to the Missing Pakistani 18-year-old the night between April 30 and May 1, 2021 – it was unearthed yesterday. The body was located 500 meters from the Abbas’ house, among the ruins of the former Novellara dairy, buried about three meters deep, under a layer of debris and rubble.

Yesterday evening, shortly after 10 pm, the human remains they were loaded onto a Green Cross vehicle to be transferred at the University of Milan, where the tests will be carried out medico-legal, entrusted by the Court of Assizes to the experts Cristina Cattaneo and Dominic Salsarola, who coordinated the operations of exhumation of the body. The work lasted four days: a special excavator and sieves were used to analyze the soil.

For the murder of Saman Abbas, who was killed for refusing an arranged marriage with a cousin, I am to trial five parentsi: the father (recently arrested in Pakistan after a long period of hiding), the mother, the only suspect still on the run, an uncle and two cousins. The hearing is set for February. Shabbar Abbas, father of the 18-year-old, on December 6, in Islamabad, will have to answer before the judge for the accusations brought against him in Italy.

Meanwhile, the Reggio Emilia prosecutor’s office has opened a second investigation against unknown personswhich could serve to investigate possible complicity, also on the basis of the results that will emerge after the examinations on the corpse.

Meanwhile almost 16 thousand people, in a few hours, have signed the petition launched on Change.org to ask for that Saman Abbas is granted honorary Italian citizenship. The initiative was launched by Ahmad Ejaz, a Pakistani journalist, who, «together with the Pakistani community and Italian civil society, ask that Saman be recognized as an Italian citizen even if her residence permit has expired. Saman must become the symbol of the younger generation and second generations who want to live without barbaric traditions freely”.

And again: «Personally, I worked for several months with Italian colleagues as a journalist and intercultural mediator. While translating the messages sent by her to her boyfriend, I felt like crying, she felt like my daughter, her refined Urdu, her voice, and her innocence. One of these messages in which she said: “The order has arrived from Pakistan to kill me but I want my documents to be able to marry my boyfriend” ».