The Trenčín District Court issued a preliminary injunction within a couple of hours of receiving a petition from Daniela Hammoud for obtaining custody of her nine-year-old daughter Fatima and four-year-old son Husein.
The children were last seen on February 9, when their father, a Lebanese citizen, said he was taking them on a trip.
The children's mother told the SITA newswire that she did not file the petition earlier because she was unaware of her right to file one. She had not used services of a lawyer during her divorce proceedings, which started already last year and are to continue at the end of the March.
"The court has evidence that the father has taken the children out of the country without their mother’s permission, and has been refusing to give them back or say where he and the children are located,” Roman Tarabus, spokesman for the Trenčín District Court, told the newswire. “It is unknown whether the children's health is in danger. The court's decision is final.”
The Slovak police have been helping with the case, as has Interpol. SITA
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
