A mother has maintained her innocence after being arrested for forcing her 20-year-old daughter to marry a man who would later murder her.
Sakina Muhammad Jan, 48, told Victoria County Court Judge Fran Dalziel through an interpreter that she had done nothing wrong.
The judge sentenced her on Monday morning to three years in prison for forcing her daughter Ruqia Haidari to marry Mohammad Ali Halimi in August 2019.
Jan will be released after 12 months on a bail order, but once released he faces deportation to Afghanistan.
Jan initially refused to sign the recognition order, claiming that he could not accept it.
Her son also told the court it was shameful that his mother was sent to prison after losing her daughter.
Jan forced Ms Haidari into the marriage after the 20-year-old’s first arranged marriage ended in divorce.
Sakina Muhammad Khan (right) faces deportation after her time in prison
Ruqia (centre) was forced to marry Mohammad Ali Halimi (left), a 25-year-old Afghan refugee and Uber driver, by her mother Sakina Muhammad Khan (right), who paid her a dowry.
The Hazara community considered Ms. Haidari “bewa,” meaning she had lost her value.
Jan arranged the second marriage to try to restore her family’s reputation despite her daughter’s objections, prosecutor Darren Renton SC told the court.
Halimi killed his young bride five months after their wedding and is serving a life sentence for her murder.
In May, a jury found Jan guilty of forcing a person into a forced marriage.
She is the first person in Australia to be sentenced on the charge after it was criminalised more than a decade ago.
Judge Dalziel told Jan that she had abused her power as a mother.
“While you believed you were acting in (Ms. Haidari’s) best interests, you were not actually doing so,” the judge said.
Jan cried and one of her family members collapsed as she was led out of the courtroom and into custody.
