A story of endurance: a mother’s fight for her kidnapped son

Case initially dismissed by court finally sees a favourable ruling for mother

Dubai: A mother broke into tears as she was reunited with her nine-year-old boy after his father brought him from Malaysia to Dubai for two years.

Rose Hu, a 38-year-old Malaysian mother, was in a legal battle for more than a year to win her child’s custody until a Dubai Court ruling went in her favour.

The ruling, issued on April 12 by the Dubai Court of Personal Status, awarded custody of the child to his Malaysian mother.

However, Rose couldn’t fly to Dubai to collect her child due to travel restrictions amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

As flights resumed, Rose arrived in Dubai to collect her boy in July. But the custody order remained to be implemented.

Rose received a call from Dubai Police this morning saying that the father had handed over the child and that she could come to collect her boy.

“Dubai Police called me in the morning saying they found my son. There wasn’t a single night I wasn’t thinking about him and crying, but it’s all over now. I was very happy to finally have him back in my life again,” the mother said outside Dubai Police Headquarters.

“I arrived in Dubai on July 8, 2020. I was on a visit visa and kept renewing my visa to reunite with my boy. For the past two years, I was fighting for the custody of my son. He was taken away from me in Malaysia,” the mother said.

“His grandparents and relatives are all waiting for him. They were asking about him a lot. I told them that I met my son. I want to thank Dubai Police for helping me. Thanks to their hard work and compassion,” Rose added.

Legal consultant Dr Hassan Elhais from Al Rowaad Advocates was representing the mother in the legal battle. “After extensive efforts and a long legal battle, the boy was reunited with his mother. We will continue our efforts to get the boy’s passport from the father. The boy will remain with his mother in Dubai for now,” Elhais told Gulf News.

He said the case was dismissed for lack of jurisdiction by the courts of first instance and appeal, but the cassation court then overturned the rulings and ordered the referral of the case to a new panel of judges at the court of first instance.

The custody battle

Dubai judges were told that after the couple divorced in their home country two years ago, the 45-year-old Malaysian father had taken the boy on a vacation to Dubai before he stopped responding to the child’s mother in December 2018.

After the father arrived with the boy in Dubai, he sent a message to the mother that he was breaking her heart by taking the boy away and that he had got a travel ban issued against the boy to keep him in Dubai.

The mother filed the custody case against her former husband in Dubai, which was dismissed by the courts of first instance and appeal before being heard again in the first instance court following the ruling of the cassation court.

Following the lawyer’s argument, the custody was awarded to the mother.

What the judge said

In his ruling, presiding judge Faraj Mousa Al Galawi said that even without a request from her, the mother was the most deserving of the custody of her young son.

“The legislator was keen on keeping custody of youngsters with mothers because mothers are more compassionate and patient in caring for their children during their first years,” said judge Al Galawi, who ordered cancellation of the boy’s travel ban and his return to his mother, also said in the ruling that the boy’s passport will have to be handed over to the mother.