Mum and daughter still stuck in Egypt (From Bournemouth Echo)

Mum and daughter still stuck in Egypt

7:00am Monday 15th March 2010 in

• Skip social links
• Print
• Email
• Comments(0)

A MOTHER who was reunited with her kidnapped daughter is now caught up in a second legal battle so they can both fly home to Britain together.

Three-year-old A’ishah is back with Leila Sabra but the pair are stranded in Egypt while Leila fights continuous custody cases being lodged by A’ishah’s father.

A’ishah was just two when she was bundled into the back of a car while on an access visit to see her father Saber Mesbah Sabra in the Egyptian resort of Hurghada on May 16 last year.

She was on holiday with Leila and her Bournemouth grandmother Barbara Maas at the time.

Leila battled for eight months to find A’ishah and was eventually reunited with her on January 21 after Egyptian police detained Saber and ordered him to hand her over.

But joy soon turned to despair when Leila discovered Saber had started making legal cases all over the country.

Speaking to the Echo yesterday, Leila said: “I am unable to leave the country due to the ongoing legal cases Saber is making against me. I now have nine ongoing cases.

“I am in constant hiding because I am so worried about losing A’ishah again – I just couldn’t handle that. Every time someone knocks on the door she runs and hides.

“It’s awful.

“We need to be free to live our lives, I want A’ishah to have a normal life and not have to hide.”

Leila says the constant legal fees have left her without any money and she has lost her rented home in Manchester.

She said she is also desperate to see her mother. “My Mum desperately wants to see A’ishah, to touch and hold her,” she said.

More than 1,000 joined a Facebook group set up to find A’ishah – Bring 2-year-old A’ishah Sabra home – and they are calling on people to email the Gordon Brown and Egyptian foreign minister to intervene.