The first person to be found guilty of forced marriage in Australia – and whose daughter was killed by the man she wedded – needs to be imprisoned to deter others from engaging in the practice, a Victorian court has heard.
A Victorian county court jury in May found Shepparton woman Sakina Muhammad Jan, 48, guilty of coercing her 20-year-old daughter to marry an older Perth man in 2019, who murdered her in January 2020.
Jan had pleaded not guilty to the offence and had denied being told by her daughter, Ruqia Haidari, that she did not want to marry Mohammad Ali Halimi.
On Tuesday, prosecutor Darren Renton said Jan demonstrated no insights into the offence and her role in it.
“There seemed to be a fundamental misunderstanding that what was being proposed was wrong,” he said.
“But Ms Haidari knew this was wrong.”
He argued imprisonment was the only appropriate sentence to help prevent similar offences.
“It’s a deterrent message. The community needs to know you can’t do this. You can’t operate in this manner in Australia. It’s not how we do things,” he said.
Under commonwealth law, those convicted of forced marriage face a maximum penalty of seven years’ imprisonment.
Renton said Jan’s offending involved a significant breach of trust because she was in a position of authority and Haidari’s sole living parent. He also told the court the risk of reoffending was low.
Defence barrister Andrew Buckland said Jan’s grief had been prolonged by the court process. He said she had been diagnosed with a major depressive disorder and a report by a forensic psychologist concluded a term of imprisonment would be “more burdensome” than for most other people.
Buckland said the guilty finding was a “source of great shame” for Jan and argued a community corrections order could still serve as a general deterrence of others.
He said Jan had suggested that if she knew what Halimi was like, she would not “have let” her daughter marry him.
Buckland also said Jan, who was born into a Hazara family in Afghanistan, was herself wedded in an arranged marriage as young as 12, and a year later had her first child. He said she was “perhaps only doing what she knew” in regards to the offence.
Judge Fran Dalziel said she was leaning towards a sentence of imprisonment.
The court had previously heard that Haidari told her mother – among others – that she did not want to marry Halimi, and accused Jan of handing her over to him in exchange for a dowry.
Halimi was sentenced to life imprisonment in Western Australia over the murder, and must serve a minimum of 19 years before being eligible for parole.
As Jan, supported by a translator, sat in the dock in the county court on Tuesday, the defence and prosecution both said there was no evidence that she knew Halimi would murder her daughter.
Renton told the court that Jan was motivated by restoring her reputation in her community by having her daughter be married.
He previously told the jury that Haidari was seen to have “lost her value” due to being divorced when Jan tried to arrange her second marriage.
After a matchmaker became involved, a meeting was arranged with Halimi, who flew from Perth to Shepparton on 1 June 2019 to meet Haidari for the first time.
Less than two weeks after this meeting, Haidari was married to him in an Islamic ceremony on a temporary basis, and then permanently married in August, the court heard.
Jan, who remained on bail, was due to be sentenced on 29 July.
- with AAP
• In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is on 13 11 14 and the national family violence counselling service is on 1800 737 732. In the UK, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123 and the domestic abuse helpline is 0808 2000 247. In the US, the suicide prevention lifeline is 988 and the domestic violence hotline is 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). Other international helplines can be found via www.befrienders.org
