Mother wins sons in four-country custody battle

DUBAI // A woman whose fight to get her children back has taken her through courts in four countries in more than three years has finally been granted custody by Dubai's highest court.

The Dubai Court of Cassation yesterday issued an order for the children to be immediately handed over to their mother, Yousra Abu Hamid, overruling a previous decision by the Court of Appeal denying her custodial rights.

"I don't know where we will live now," Ms Abu Hamid said. "I will do the easiest and quickest thing. I want the most peaceful solution.

"I will live with them in the middle of the desert if I must - anywhere, I just want to be with them."

Her battle for the custody of her sons Sami, 11, and Ramis, 5, began in November 2008 when she divorced their Jordanian father, BA, in a British court.

On 7 December, 2008 - five days before the British courts granted the mother full custody - their father took them to Syria.

An Interpol yellow notice was issued for the two children.

The mother flew to Syria and filed a custody case in that country's courts, which also ruled in her favour and granted her custody.

But in 2009, her children were taken to Jordan, where the father filed a third case for full custody, which the courts granted.

Ms Abu Hamid said the children had been living with her ex-husband's mother since May 18 last year.

"My oldest son Sami was told I was trying to take his little brother away from him," she said. "He was scared to death.

"Can you imagine? In one day he lost everything: his mother, his toys, his school, his friends … and was put in the middle of strange people. And then my ex left them a week later to come to Dubai. He left them with people who don't even speak their language."

After the father accepted a job in the UAE, Ms Abu Hamid filed a fourth request to be granted custody rights in Dubai but was refused.

The Dubai Personal Status Court took only the Jordanian court's decision into account. It also denied her any visiting rights.

Last year, the Dubai Court of Appeals upheld that ruling and accepted a defence argument that Ms Abu Hamid had been beating her children - even though a case filed by the father was dismissed by prosecutors.

"They knew it was nonsense," she said.

Ms Abu Hamid's final appeal to the highest court was filed by Yousef Al Bahar, the managing partner at Al Bahar and Associates law firm.

In his request to the court, Mr Al Bahar said the lower courts had failed to follow legal procedure by not recognising the judgments issued outside of Jordan, all of which granted the mother custody.

"The appeal court had no grounds to rule against the mother in that argument," he said. "The court also took into account a case that was dismissed by prosecutors due to a lack of evidence, and refused the mother to have any visitation to her sons."

Mr Al Bahar said the Cassation Court's ruling will be sent to Jordan so the children can be handed over to Ms Abu Hamid.

"I do not know how long this will take but I hope to be reunited with my boys sooner rather than later," she said. "The first thing I'll do when I see them is just ask them for a hug and let them decide.

"I know it will be hard for them after hearing bad things about me for the three years. I try not to imagine what sort of ideas were going through their minds: my bad mother, my evil mother.

"I wish I could just wipe out all of those bad thoughts."

The Dubai Court of Cassation also ordered that the Court of Appeal retry a second case filed by Ms Abu Hamid demanding back her children's passports, which are held by the father.

amustafa@thenational.ae