French Jewish mother wins custody battle against Saudi prince

Miss Cohen-Ahnine claimed that her daughter was taken from her during a visit
to Saudi
Arabia
in 2008 and that she was held in the prince’s palace where
she had only fleeting meetings with her daughter.

She said she managed to leave when a maid left her door open and she sought
refuge in the French embassy.

Miss Cohen-Ahnin was eventually spirited out of the country after the prince
allegedly produced a document purporting that she had been Muslim but had
converted to Judaism — a crime punishable by death.

She said she was concerned about her daughter’s upbringing when she discovered
Facebook photos of her in a niqab and playing with her father’s firearms.

Despairing at the lack of diplomatic progress, she published Give My Daughter
Back, a book recounting her ordeal, in October.

Since the court ruling, the prince faces an international arrest warrant for
ignoring the custody sentence.

Mrs Cohen-Ahnine said the court ruling was a “great victory for me and
vindicates everything I have said … but I’m still very worried for my
child’s future.”

The prince denied ever having kidnapped the child or the mother.

Speaking to The Daily Telegraph, he said: “She was free to come and go as she
pleased.”

He said she had converted to Islam and the two had married in Lebanon under
Islamic law, and under terms of the divorce, put through courts in Lebanon
and Saudi Arabia, the parents were to share custody of the child.

He said the protocol was drawn up in Saudi Arabia offering her a house, all
expenses paid and access to the child and the possibility of taking her on
holiday for one-and-a-half months a year.

He said she left Saudi Arabia for France without even telling the family. He
claimed that she said: “’Give me two million euros and take the daughter’. I
said, ‘No, I don’t bargain over my own child’. That’s when the problem
started.”

The prince said he would send lawyers to France to challenge the court
decision but not his daughter.

“France hasn’t got the right to take her back. She is a Saudi citizen and a
princess. They cannot oblige a princess to leave this country,” he said.

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