Cairo, April 8, 2024
The Family Court of Al-Qanater Al-Khayriyah has issued its ruling rejecting the petition to prevent the child Jana from traveling without stating reasons. The mother had filed the petition to protect her child from kidnapping.
The case, known in the media as the “Elevator Girl Kidnapping,” began in December 2023 when the father of the two children, Hanin and Jana, formed a criminal gang, including a drug offender, and assaulted the two children, aged 11 and 14. They were drugged, and the 11-year-old Hanin was kidnapped and taken to Saudi Arabia. Due to the intervention of the building guard and passersby, they were unable to kidnap Jana, and she escaped from the criminals’ hands.
The Misdemeanor Court of Nasr City sentenced the father in absentia (due to his escape with Hanin to Saudi Arabia) to one year in prison. However, despite five months passing since the incident, the state has been unable to get back Hanin or arrest the fugitive father.
As a result, the mother of the two children turned to the Family Court to request a travel ban order for Jana, who survived the kidnapping, to prevent the tragedy from recurring and her being smuggled out of the country.
The mother’s lawyer presented all the reasons for concern about the child’s safety, along with documents proving that the father had previously kidnapped the two children and kept them away from the mother, and it took her three years to regain custody of them. They also highlighted the recent kidnapping incident in December 2023, which succeeded in kidnapping Hanin and has not been recovered to this day. However, the court rejected the petition without stating reasons. Therefore, the mother’s defense filed a complaint against the rejection decision, which will be reviewed by the same judicial body.
As we question the reasons for rejecting the protection of the child, we hope that the court will issue a travel ban order for Jana.
The Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights demands:
- The President of the Republic to swiftly issue a family law that protects children in cases of conflict.
- The Minister of Interior to amend the Civil Status Regulations so that both parents are treated equally, as in Saudi Arabia and many other countries and Islamic states, so that neither party can travel with the children without the consent of the other party.
- The Minister of Foreign Affairs to expedite the procedures for the repatriation of the child Hanin.
- The Parliament to study the phenomenon of child abduction within families and enact legislation to combat the use and kidnapping of children.
