Reggio Emilia, July 17, 2026 – “We have reached the end of this complex and painful story, from every point of view,” commented Valeria Miari, civil party lawyer for Saman’s brother, outside the Court of Cassation. “An end that does justice to Saman and her brother, who by testifying lost everything. He said he wanted to seek justice for his sister and I believe he has done so. A 21-year-old boy with a big heart, for him it will be a destroyed, dangerous life. He will never fully recover, but he tries to rebuild himself.” He wants to be a chef, as she wanted.
Alì Haider, the brother of the 18-year-old from Novellara killed on the night of May 1, 2021, tells his truth. The day after the Court of Cassation put an end to the judicial case – confirming four life sentences for parents and cousins and 22 years in prison for the uncle, for voluntary manslaughter in complicity and corpse concealment – HBO Max revealed the first images of ’Saman – The Hidden Truth’, the docu-series that tells the heartbreaking struggle for freedom of a Pakistani woman murdered by her family clan for refusing a forced marriage. It will be released soon on TV.
“Saman was killed by her parents, uncle, and cousins who acted as a clan to restore the family’s honor.” This was established by the judges.
The preview clip of the series shows surveillance camera videos, Saman’s voice in the original audio (which had already been played in court). But there are also statements from the brother, a key witness in the entire case. The young man, now 21, during the first instance hearings appeared in court behind a screen (but shown by Rai’s ’Un giorno in Pretura’ footage), telling his truth and accusing the family members of his sister’s murder.
“I saw everything,” Alì Haider reiterates today in front of the camera. Behind that screen, he had spoken words heavy as boulders: “My father threatened me, he told me he would hang me in the greenhouses if I didn’t show him the chats between Saman and her boyfriend Saqib. And I showed them to him.”
Haider had said he witnessed the meeting between the parents, the uncle, and the cousins where they talked about digging the grave to bury her. “But never, never, did I think they would do such a thing. I thought it was just words… That night I saw everything, I was afraid of my father and of meeting the same fate. The uncle grabbed her by the neck and took her to the second greenhouse. The cousins were there too. My mother and father watched. Then they came back and we gathered in my parents’ room. And they told me to cry.” Now, he will tell all this openly.
“He won – concludes lawyer Miari – his words have come out of the courtrooms and shouted, they have entered the homes of all the brothers, cousins, uncles, fathers of the Samans, saying that a woman is free to do what she wants with her life. Because this is what he believes in today. He now feels Italian, he has seen that there is a huge difference he could not see before. And this is a revolutionary thing, that scares.”
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