Husband and Wife have Son while living together in Indiana.
Husband is from Egypt.
Husband and Wife’s marriage is rocky.
While Wife is in the hospital, Husband allegedly abducts then three year old Son to his native Egypt.
Indiana family court awards Wife sole custody of Son.
Three years ago.
But Husband has not allowed Wife to see or speak to Son since.
Son has also had no contact with his big sister, from whom he was inseparable until the day he was abducted.
Husband was always insistent that Son be raised in the Muslim faith.
Wife never gave permission for Son to obtain a passport or to travel abroad.
However Husband was able to obtain an emergency passport for Son without Wife’s permission. It is unclear but the passport may have been issued by Egypt rather than the US.
The US government requires both parents’ consent to issue a passport for a minor child under sixteen years of age.
As an extra measure of protection, it is possible for either parent to place an alert so that the US government does not issue a passport for their child.
But parents should know that several foreign countries grant dual citizenship to American children of their nationals and may issue passports by their own country with only the permission of the parent who is a national of that country.
Egypt is not a party to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. Wife’s US child custody order is not recognized in Egypt.
Seventy-four percent of the abducted children returned to the US in 2009 were abducted to Hague Convention countries.
Mother, as an American, non-Muslim woman, reportedly would not prevail in any child custody battle in Egypt’s own family courts.
Read more in this Evansville [IN] Courier Press article: Evansville’s Missing People: Life without Adam.
Rural Justice Initiative Committee - Kansas Judicial Center (.gov)
-
Rural Justice Initiative Committee Kansas Judicial Center (.gov)
5 months ago
