A mother has maintained her innocence as she was led into custody for forcing her 20-year-old daughter to marry a man who would later murder her.
Sakina Muhammad Jan, 48, told Victorian County Court Judge Fran Dalziel through an interpreter that she has not done anything wrong.
The judge on Monday morning jailed her for three years for forcing her daughter Ruqia Haidari to marry Mohammad Ali Halimi in August 2019.
Sakina Muhammad Jan (right) faces deportation after her time in prison
Jan will be released from custody on a recognisance order after 12 months but faces deportation to Afghanistan once released.
Jan initially refused to sign the recognisance order, maintaining she could not accept it.
‘I’ve done nothing wrong I cannot accept… I cannot be locked in,’ she said, in an emotional outburst, via an interpreter.
Her son also told the court it was shameful his mother was being sent to prison after losing her daughter.
Jan coerced Ms Haidari into the marriage after the 20-year-old’s first arranged marriage ended in divorce.
Ruqia (centre) was forced to marry 25-year-old Afghan refugee and Uber driver Mohammad Ali Halimi (left) by her mother Sakina Muhammad Jan (right), who paid him a dowry payment
Ruqia Haidari, 21, was killed by her husband after an arranged marriage
Ms Haidari was considered ‘bewa’ by the Hazara community, meaning she had lost her value.
Jan arranged the second marriage to try and 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 prison term for her murder.
A jury in May found Jan guilty of causing a person to enter 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 she had abused her power as a mother.
‘While you believed you were acting in (Ms Haidari’s) best interests, you were not in fact doing so,’ the judge said.
Jan cried and one of her family members collapsed as she was led from the court and into custody.
She was placed into the back of an ambulance about 30 minutes later.
