A British woman who claims her two young children were abducted by her estranged husband in Egypt has been offered foreign office support in her fight to win them back, reported The Scotsman.com.
Louise Soliman, 23, from Clydebank, was quoted as saying that her daughters, Karina, three, and Darine, one, were taken by her husband's father, a former Egyptian police chief.
She also claimed she was forced onto a plane headed out of the country.
Soliman, who was married for three years, moved to Egypt with her 30-year-old husband, Tamer, but returned with the youngsters to Scotland for Christmas and filed for divorce, claiming he had beaten her.
She said she had agreed to return to Egypt last month to allow her children to see their grandparents, Hussien and Nazik Soliman. However, she said the retired police chief had taken them when she agreed to meet her husband for a coffee.
Soliman said she had then been driven to the airport and forced to leave the country, with a policeman escorting her to the plane.
She said she was devastated to have been separated from her daughters: "They have taken my children and torn out my heart.
"My life will be over if I can’t get my children back with me," said Soliman. "They’re all I think about."
According to the report, the UK Foreign Office said last night that it would do what it could to assist the woman.
A spokeswoman said a lawyer representing her had contacted the British embassy in Cairo last Thursday. However, she said officials needed more information before taking further action.
The spokesman said: "We are still awaiting further details. We will offer whatever assistance and advice we can, but ultimately it will be for her to obtain legal advice from Egypt, and it will be for an Egyptian court to decide who should have custody of the children."
In international custody cases involving Britons, the foreign office can offer support to citizens by setting up meetings between the opposing parties and making welfare visits to children, said the news service.
Soliman said she had trusted her husband’s parents, despite fleeing with her children last year from Zagazig, near Cairo.
She said: "I didn’t suspect a thing. I thought everyone had accepted the situation between myself and Tamer.
"I would never have gone to Egypt had I thought my children would be taken from me. Hussien had always been a real gentleman and was sympathetic when I left his son." – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
