Father kidnaps kids

Father (36) kidnaps family from the Netherlands, crying children call for their mother at German airport

An Iraqi living in the Netherlands tried to fly to Iran via Germany with his three young children on Tuesday without their mother's permission. The man was stopped at the airport in Cologne by alert security guards after he had picked up his children from school in the Netherlands.

The 36-year-old father had a flight scheduled for 4:30 PM on Tuesday afternoon from Cologne to the Iranian capital Tehran, with a stopover in Istanbul. The father was noticed at customs when his three sad children repeatedly called for their mother in Arabic. The security team did not trust this and alerted the federal police. They arrived quickly and managed to prevent the man from boarding the plane.

Mother tricked
It later turned out that the father had used a false power of attorney with the signature of the children's 32-year-old mother. She scribbled on the form because she thought it was intended for a doctor's appointment for one of her children. The father then picked up his children from school early and they went to Cologne-Bonn airport with their school bags and hand luggage. The father used the signed document as ‘evidence’ to get the children out of Germany without permission. Without success.

The children, a 13-year-old boy and two girls aged 10 and 8, were handed over to the Dutch police at the border crossing between Germany and the Netherlands. They were reunited with their worried mother that same evening.

Concerns about kidnapping
The Iraqi had been living with his 13-year-old son somewhere in the Netherlands for a month. The mother lives elsewhere in our country with her two daughters. The woman raised the alarm with the Dutch police two months ago, because she feared that her ex-husband was planning to kidnap her children. According to the German police, the woman was not aware of her ex-husband’s travel plans with the children.

The father will soon be charged with kidnapping minors and falsifying documents. He now risks a prison sentence of several years. For the German police, this case highlights the importance of careful checking of travel documents when traveling with children.

The police advise airports to always check whether a parent has a formal declaration of consent from the legal guardian, as well as personal details and a travel itinerary. According to the German police, these precautions are essential to prevent the risk of child abductions.

Glad they ended back with their Mother.