A 45-year-old man from Syria is alleged to have abducted his two children back to Syria to use them as bait against their mother. According to the case prepared against him, he had intended to divorce his estranged wife there — to make sure she'd have no right to demand child support and related payments from her husband. The man now faces several years in prison if found guilty.
A court in the western German city of Bad Kreuznach has put a 45-year-old Syrian national on trial over allegations that he kidnapped his at the time 18-year-old daughter and seven-year-old son, forcing them to return to Syria under false pretenses in 2024.
The trial began on Monday, November 2. According to reports in the German press, his daughter testified against him in court, and broke down in tears several times during the process as she recalled how events unfolded for her and her sibling two years ago.
The man has been charged with hostage-taking, which carries a minimum prison sentence of five years.
Putting pressure on estranged wife to accept unfair divorce
At the time of the incident, the Syrian man was living alone, having separated from the mother of his two children.
The court heard that the man allegedly had financial motives to abduct the children, apparently hoping to use them as leverage in the hope of luring his estranged wife to the Middle Eastern country.
There, according to the prosecution, he had intended to push his estranged wife into agreeing to divorce under Islamic law instead of under German legislation.
If his plans had succeeded, the woman would have been left penniless without any form of recourse to demand payments from him as an ex-wife.
Germany's public broadcaster ARD's news channel Tageschau reported that he had also been hoping to return to Germany once divorced to live with another woman in Germany.
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Syrian hotel used to hold children captive
In order to succeed with the alleged plan, the man allegedly suggested to the children's mother that he be allowed to take the son and daughter on a holiday to Saudi Arabia.
After some hesitation, the estranged wife eventually agreed to the idea, not suspecting any sinister motives, according to the Bad Kreuznach public prosecutor's office.
However, instead of flying to Saudi Arabia as previously discussed, the defendant then took the children to Beirut, Lebanon against their will.
In Lebanon, the accused supposedly took the two across the Syrian border to Aleppo, according to the results of an investigation presented in court by the prosecution.
Once in Aleppo, he reportedly checked into a hotel room with the children, where he then attempted to keep the two hostage.
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Children used as leverage to lure wife to Syria
Investigators said that the Syrian man had intended to use this to put pressure on the estranged wife in Germany, using the two children as bait.
He reportedly called the woman and demanded that she come to Syria, where he had been planning to divorce her under Islamic law. The prosecution stated that in that scenario, she would have had to waive all claims to alimony payments and child support.
During the alleged hostage situation, the Syrian man apparently told his daughter that he would harm the mother if the girl attempted to leave her state of captivity, repeating this threat on several occasions.
In the end however, the two children managed to escape from the hotel room while the man had temporarily left the room.
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Children escape hotel room — only to remain stuck in Syria
During the trial, they daughter testified that as soon as she left the hotel room, she borrowed a phone to alert the German Embassy and tell the police about the situation. The accused man is said to have also taken away the children's mobile phones as well as their passports.
According to reports on ARD's Tageschau, the mother first tried to arrange for a smuggler to take her children back over the border to Lebanon, but they were stopped by Syrian authorities at the first control. Reportedly, the children cried so much, that the Syrian police took them to their mother's parents, who also live in Aleppo.
At that point, the father allegedly told the Syrian authorities that his former in-laws had tried to abduct the children, resulting in the grandfather and an uncle also spending time in Syrian custody.
Meanwhile, German authorities began processing the papers to allow for the children's return to Germany. During this period, the defendant reportedly returned to Germany himself, where police officials promptly arrested him upon arrival, according to court documents.
Later, the defendant was pushed into arranging for the children to have their passports returned, and thus enabling them to fly back to their home in Germany and reunite with their mother.
But before that, he had reportedly contacted Syrian authorities to impose a travel ban on the two while still holding them captive, resulting in lengthier procedures before they were able to travel back.
Eventually, the 18-year-old girl and her seven-year-old brother were able to return to Germany in mid-August 2024 after spending months in Syria against their will.
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