Saman's father makes first appearance in Italian courtroom

(ANSA) - ROME, SEP 8 - Shabbar Abbas, the Pakistani man accused of murdering his 18-year-old daughter Saman in Emilia Romagna in 2021 with other family members after she refused an arranged marriage, made his first appearance in court in Italy on Friday after being extradited from Pakistan last week.
    Abbas joined Saman's uncle Danish Hasnain, and her two cousins, Ikram Ijaz and Nomanhulaq Nomanhulaq, in the courtroom in Reggio Emilia where they are on trial in relation to the killing on the night between April 30 and May 1, 2021, near the northern town of Novellara.
    Saman's mother Nazia Shaheen is the only defendant still at large, and last week judicial authorities said they would continue to press "in silence" for her arrest and extradition from Pakistan.
    Before the hearing activists gathered outside the court house carrying a banner reading "Saman in our hearts and in our battles" and distributing an open letter to judicial authorities calling for them to receive specific training in gender-based violence.
    "There are too many cases where violence has not been recognised in the courts," read the letter.
    "We call for training courses in particular for all law enforcement personnel, the judiciary and social services.
    Training that is necessarily feminist and administered by anti-violence centres," it continued.
    Abbas was the first person to be extradited from Pakistan to Italy in what Reggio Emilia prosecutor Gaetano Calogero Paci described as "an example of the perfect functioning and credibility of the Italian judicial and institutional system".
    Deputy Premier and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said the extradition was also "the fruit of great diplomatic work".
    (ANSA).