Afghan mum who compelled her daughter into an organized marriage earlier than her husband killed her is going through jail: ‘Not in Australia’

A lady who coerced her daughter into an organized marriage that ended with the husband murdering the bride might be jailed for the act, a courtroom has heard.

Sanika Muhammad Jan, 48 of Shepparton in Victoria, confronted the Melbourne County Courtroom on Tuesday.

In Could, a jury discovered Jan responsible of coercing her daughter Ruqia Haidari, 21, into marrying Perth man Mohammad Ali Halimi in November 2019.

A felony case of coercion into marriage is unprecedented in Australia due to comparatively new federal legal guidelines banning the observe and the underground nature of such preparations.

On Tuesday, the courtroom was advised Jan was wed in an association when she was about 13 years previous in Afghanistan. She had 5 kids and by no means went to high school.

Her husband was murdered by the Taliban, and the household fled, spending 13 years in a refugee settlement in Pakistan. They settled in Australia in 2013.

Defence lawyer Andrew Buckland mentioned forcing her daughter to be married was Jan appearing in a misguided approach that she thought was in her daughter’s finest pursuits.

Ms Haidari had already had an organized marriage at 15 years of age, however that ended and the household had been burdened by a cultural stigma surrounding the separation, Mr Buckland mentioned.

‘Ms Jan believed the wedding was the appropriate factor due to her status and the status of Ms Haidari,’ he mentioned.

Ms Haidari was murdered by her new husband in Perth in January 2020, about six weeks after the wedding.

Jan had not accepted her felony accountability, the courtroom was advised.

‘She has not acknowledged her accountability however one thing that factors to her regret, one thing she has expressed to me all through and once more this morning is that if she knew what Mr Halimi was like, she wouldn’t have let her marry him,’ Mr Buckland mentioned.

Halimi was sentenced to life imprisonment with a 19-year minimal in a Perth courtroom.

Ms Haidari and her murderous husband knew one another for a matter of months earlier than the marriage, a reality Justice Fran Dalziel mentioned ‘boggles the thoughts’.

‘Sure however it’s a distinct tradition,’ Mr Buckland mentioned.

‘It boggles our minds however it’s from a tradition of organized marriages.’

Jan speaks no English and had a translator in courtroom.

She had not been capable of settle for her culpability for the wedding as a result of doing so could be accepting some accountability for her daughter’s loss of life, Mr Buckland mentioned.

The household are Hazaras, a victimised ethnic minority of Afghanistan. A son and a son-in-law of Jan’s had been in courtroom on Tuesday.

Prosecutor Darren Renton mentioned Ms Haidari had a considerable amount of belief, and was financially dependent, on her mom.

‘The day after assembly the husband, Haidari was expressing considerations to individuals exterior the household. She successfully mentioned I’ve obtained no alternative (to get married),’ Mr Renton mentioned.

‘She was bereft of a alternative.’

Compelled marriages had been tough to research and prosecute, he mentioned.

‘The group must know you may’t do that. You possibly can’t function on this method in Australia,’ Mr Renton mentioned.

‘What did occur (the homicide) is nearly precisely why parliament says these marriages cannot occur.’

The case might contain the controversial Part 501 of the Australian Migration Act, which permits a migrant’s visa to be cancelled in the event that they fail a personality check.

The courtroom was advised if Jan was sentenced to a time period in jail, deportation to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan might comply with.

‘Her visa might be cancelled,’ Justice Dalziel mentioned.

‘However the reality she’s a lady, the place she comes from and who’s in cost, and the very fact she’s Hazara, if I do impose 12 months (jail), it is (deportation) a major danger for her.’

Justice Dalziel will ship her sentence in courtroom on Monday when a time period in custody would be the courtroom’s central query to reply.

Exterior courtroom, tv reporters and cameras chased Jan throughout a busy Melbourne CBD intersection, asking if she was ‘ashamed’ of her actions regardless of listening to repeatedly that she speaks no English.