Muslim father faces jail unless daughter returned
Mr Justice George Birmingham said unless the man uses his influence to ensure the return of his teenage daughter, he will face a term of 12 months imprisonment. He was involved in getting her out of the country in Jan 2012 in clear contempt of court orders, the judge said.
The girl, who lived here from a young age, underwent an arranged marriage here at the age of 16 with a 29-year-old man but, following legal proceedings, it was declared void in 2011 by reason of absence of full, free and informed consent. The HSE had intervened after teachers and social workers expressed concerns the girl had, or was being, coerced by her parents into marriage.
After a judge declared the marriage null, her mother obtained travel documents from the Egyptian embassy and both parents were found to be in contempt of the court. The girl was later brought to Egypt where the marriage is due to take place.
Yesterday, Mr Justice Birmingham agreed to a HSE application that the father be committed to prison for contempt.
The judge said it may not have been a coincidence, given the father’s political and philosophical views, that he had returned to Ireland and presented himself at a Garda station shortly after the removal from office of President Mohammed Morsi by Egypt’s military.
The parents and the girl’s sister solemnly swore to the court on the Quran, shortly after contempt proceedings were bought, that no harm would come to the girl from them, any family member, or anyone else, the judge noted. Soon afterwards, the HSE received a letter from the solicitors for the parents and the girl’s fiance, that she had gone to Egypt.
Despite further court orders restraining the father from leaving the jurisdiction, he left for Egypt and a warrant was issued for his arrest before he returned last July.
The judge said that in Jan 2012, a court heard the girl had also left a voicemail message on the phone of the chief registrar of the High Court in which she said she wished to stay in Egypt and did not want her parents to be in trouble, If anything, the judge said, this served to raise the concern level about the girl, particularly as she had a court-appointed guardian acting on her behalf.
In an affidavit in Jan 2012, the father said there was “little I can do” to effect her return.
Mr Justice Birmingham said the father’s tone was one of helplessness which had been “a constant refrain“.
The contempt matter had been before him a number of times since July and it was made clear to the father that if he was to encourage his daughter to travel to Ireland, even for a short time, it would be enormously to his credit, the judge said.
Mr Justice Birmingham said he had spoken to the daughter by phone, in the Irish consulate in Alexandria, in which she said she would not be travelling to Ireland at this stage, was engaged to be married and would definitely travel after the wedding.
She did not want her father to go to prison.
If it were simply a case that the father had been in breach of orders by travelling to Egypt, there would be no question of him facing prison.
But the judge was satisfied to a criminal standard of proof had been met in relation to his involvement in her departure from the State and failure or refusal to secure her return.
His account of her leaving the country, saying he returned from work to find his wife and children gone on Jan 4, 2012, and of only learning the next day that his daughter was in Egypt, was incredible and an affront to common sense, the judge said.
In the hope that he would take steps to purge his contempt, the judge postponed the enforcement of the imprisonment order for four weeks.
