ROME, Dec 5 An Italian court of appeal upheld on Friday a 30-year prison sentence for a Pakistani father who murdered his daughter in a so-called honour killing in 2006.

The young woman's two brothers-in-law, who were also jailed for 30 years for their part in her death, saw their sentence reduced to 17 years, Sky TG24 news channel reported. The stabbed body of Hina Saleem, 21, was found buried in the garden of the family home in Sarezzo, near the northern city of Brescia, on August 11, 2006.

Ms Saleem, who reportedly refused an arranged marriage with a cousin, had been estranged from her family and lived with her Italian boyfriend Giuseppe Tempini.

During the 2007 trial the prosecutor called her murder “a punishment inflicted by her father because she had disrespected the rules of her family's ethnicity and culture”.

The case has raised questions in Italy about how immigrants integrate into society. Ms Saleem's father and two brothers-in-law were sentenced in November 2007. One of her uncles, convicted of helping to conceal the body, was also jailed for two years and eight months.—AFP