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Italy: Three Pakistani men convicted of 'honour killing'
 It seems that a nation-wide anti-Islamic reaction is taking place in Italy. (ANSA) - Brescia, November 13 - A Brescia judge sentenced three Pakistani men to 30 years in jail on Tuesday for the 'honour killing' of their young female relative.
At a full-length trial the men would probably have been given Saleem was stabbed 28 times on the third floor of her family home in the northern town of Sarezzo and buried in the garden. Her Italian boyfriend, with whom she was living at the time, found her body the next day after she failed to return home or answer her phone. According to the prosecution, Saleem was deliberately lured back to the family home following a meeting of male relatives, who decided to punish her for bringing shame upon the family. The defence said Saleem's father, Mohammed, killed her in the heat of an argument, after she drew a knife on him and demanded money. It said the two brothers-in-law were sitting downstairs at the time and knew nothing of the argument until afterwards. Hina Saleem, together with her mother and sisters, left Pakistan six years ago, joining her father who settled in Italy in 1996. Her boyfriend, 30-year-old Giuseppe Tempini, told investigators she had been arguing with her family for weeks before the murder. She had apparently refused to marry the man her family wanted and would not return to Pakistan with her mother and sisters. Tempini burst into tears when the sentence was read out, while Saleem's mother, who was in Pakistan at the time of the murder, started screaming at the judge, and was eventually taken away by an ambulance. Commenting on the sentence, Mohammed Saleem's lawyer Alberto Bordone said: ''I was expecting this, as was my client. I will certainly appeal the decision''. The judge provisionally awarded Tempini 20,000 euros' compensation, which he has said he will donate to charity. The sentence, almost the highest available for murder, was welcomed by female politicians, many of whom had followed the fast-track trial closely. ''I am completely satisfied with this exemplary sentence and the tough decision of the Brescia court,'' said Isabella Bertolini, deputy House whip of the centre-right Forza Italia party. The rightwing MP Daniela Santanche', who received a death threat earlier this year after claiming the Koran doesn't require women to wear veils, said she hoped the full sentence would be served. ''I wouldn't want to see the murderers wandering the streets in a few years, in a position to repeat similar atrocities,'' she said. Silvana Mura, an MP with the centrist Italy of Values party, also praised the ''fair decision'' of the judge, adding: ''Let's also hope the figure of young Hina becomes a symbol of courage, of joy in life, and of a willingness to integrate one's own culture with that of the country one lives in''. Brescia province has one of the highest immigrant populations in Italy, accounting for 11-14% of its inhabitants. Pakistanis are the largest community, making up around 10,000 of the 120,000 immigrants living in the province. Police in Islamic countries often turn a blind eye to so-called 'honour killings' - and they are not always pursued by Western police. There was a landmark conviction in Britain earlier this year, where some 100 homicides are now being treated in the same light. There have been reports of such killings spreading from Pakistan to Italy - as well as suicides of women forced into marriage. Decades ago honour killings sometimes occurred in highly traditional communities in southern Italy, when young women were murdered for allegedly bringing shame on the family. Sicily was ruled by the Saracens for almost 200 years. Posted by: mrp 2007-11-13 |
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