Naples (Italy), July 8 (IANS/AKI) Murdered Pakistani investigative journalist Saleem Shahzad's widow Friday travelled to the Italian island of Ischia to collect a journalism prize on her late husband's behalf.

Anita Saleem made the journey from Karachi accompanied by their 13-year-old son.

Italy's Ischia Prize Foundation in June granted Shahzad a special international journalism award. The annual prizes honour excellence in journalism and communication.

Other award winners this year are Giovanni Maria Vian, director of the Vatican daily L'Osservatore Romano; Rym Ali Brajimi, founder of Jordan's Media Institute; and commercial Italian TV network Canale 5's TG5 news bulletin deputy-director Toni Capuozzo.

The badly beaten body of Shahzad, who worked as a correspondent for AKI and Asia Times, was found 150 km southwest of Islamabad May 31, two days after he disappeared from the capital.

Suspicion over the 40-year-old father-of-three's murder has fallen strongly on Pakistan's powerful ISI military intelligence agency, which in an ususual move denied involvement in his death.

Days before his disappearance he published an article in Asia Times Online alleging links between Al Qaeda and officials in the Pakistan Navy.