Saudi Arabia: the fight of a French for his daughter

Saudi Arabia: the fight of a French for his daughter

January 26, 2012 by lagazettedeputeaux



Saudi Arabia: the fight of a French for his daughter

Interview by Valentina Logreco



The .fr Express



Candice Cohen-Ahnine tries to get back in France of his daughter, Haya, whose father is a member of the Saudi royal family. For the first time, a French Court gave him reason.



French Court decided. January 12, the Tribunal de Grande Instance de Paris has taken the decision to give the custody of Haya to his mother, Candice Cohen-Ahnine. This is a first legal victory for the French girl who was abducted in July 2008 with her daughter by the father, a prince of the Saudi royal family. Candice Cohen has spent more than seven months locked in a cell within the royal palace in Riyadh. After to be refugee for three months at the France Embassy in Riyadh, Candice was exfiltrée in June 2009 by the Quai d'Orsay, but without her ten year old daughter. His return in France, she complained to child abduction, as well as for the violence. She told her story in a book published last year (make me my daughter, Editions archipelago, October 2011, 18.95 euros) and open a web site (www.rendezmoimafille.com.)



What will happen now judicial?



If the le père father of Haya, Sattam, refuses to me my daughter, an international arrest warrant will be launched against him.



You have been exfiltrée of Saudi Arabia with the help of the Quai d'Orsay. However, you are very critical of French authorities. Why?



They have all gone to avoid diplomatic incidents. Ms. Touma, Consul France in Saudi Arabia, tried me have signed an abandonment of child. Master Catherine Zviloff, counsel advised by the Quai d'Orsay, sabotaged the folder. When I arrived at the Embassy of France, managed to escape me, it has convinced me to come back where I came from. I have also heard: "you are young and beautiful, you can turn the page and get your lives!"



Haya, daughter of Candice Cohen.



DR.



I have evidence of what I said, I was logging my conversations with my mobile phone as soon as I could. I know this is not very well but that's how that am exit. I was alone in the world at this time. In addition, I discovered telex between the Saudi Arabia and the France while I was imprisoned stating that I was crazy and that I could pose problems for the Royal family. The French authorities took without checking what told the Saudis. While I have always been Jewish, I was even accused of being a Muslim converted to Judaism, which is liable to the death penalty in Saudi Arabia. It is extremely serious.



You still trust to justice?



I trust justice French of course, not authorities.



Back a moment on your removal. When you have been locked, July 12, 2008, how did you do to not descend into madness, while all members of the Royal family around you you were pass for mad, even in the eyes of your daughter?



How it from slipping into madness? With the instinct of survival and… you have seen the film life is beautiful of Roberto Benigni? I do not like to make such comparisons, of course, but in this film the character knows that it is the end. And yet it is as if everything was a game in the eyes of his son. This is what I tried to do too, because my daughter was terrorised.



I trust course, French justice authorities not



Now, I know that I have been manipulated. In the beginning, I did not understand, I was in shock. Then, it is the survival instinct that has taken hold. I had before me a little girl of six and a half years, courageous super who fought. It was the hiding place bring me tubes of toothpaste, SOAP, food. Several occasions, to do this, she was beaten before me. Emotionnellement, it was very hard. But I always kept hope. I thought that I was French, that was going to pick us up. And then many people that I didn't have me out…



You want to talk about social networks?



Entirely. A few months before to go to Saudi Arabia I had opened a Facebook account. Riyadh once, when I managed to escape me for the first time to go to the Embassy of France, before returning in my cell, I bought a mobile phone. I've used to send messages on Facebook. It resulted in a mobilization. There was a white walk between the Elysee and the Saudi Arabia Embassy in Paris. At the Quai d'Orsay, they were forced to receive my parents. Therefore, negotiations have begun. Shortly after, I have take refuge me at the Embassy of France in Riyadh.



Yet, at this time, the media in France don't speak almost of your case?



The Quai d'Orsay had required my parents that they do not mediate the case. It was, we said to them, the sine qua non to be released. We played the game. But negotiations between my family and that of the father of Haya have given nothing. The Royal family only consented so that I can see my daughter three times a year for a week.



Feel you today to Sattam and his family?



The Saudi royal family is not above his own laws



I have no hatred. I have the penalty for my daughter. Justice says that the father no longer has any right. It has just the right to visit his daughter under high surveillance by indirectly preventing me at least one month in advance. I would like to be judged by Sattam and all those who provided it. This is not because it is the Royal family they are their own laws!



Have news about your daughter?



I talk to him on the phone every two or three weeks. But each time, they are the intermediaries who drop out. Someone next to her is to tell him what answer me. And as I do not want is to punish, we only have casual discussions. It is a little girl who has always been very balanced, I do not think that it leaves influenced by what they tell him about me. The complicity between us still exists. Sometimes, it passes me messages coded by phone, for example by inventing a poetry.



After this judicial victory, you feel threatened?



Yes. There are threats since that began to publicise the matter a bit, and I worry. I have filed a complaint.