Two innocent Irish citizens have been kidnapped.. why is Ireland not acting?
Mum desperate to get her sons back from their father in Egypt
THE heartbroken mother of two young abducted children is pleading for a meeting with the Minister for Justice to help get them back.
Mandy Kelly hasn’t seen Zayn, five, and three-year-old Kareem in over two years. Both are Irish-born citizens.
The children were abducted by their Egyptian father Ramy Gamal Maamoun Mohamed the day before they were due to return to Ireland after he locked Mandy in a room in an apartment while they were on holiday in Cairo in 2022.
Mandy said: “My children are Irish-born and they deserve the State to intervene.”
Two weeks ago she managed to hand Taoiseach Leo Varadkar a letter to give to Justice Minister Helen Mcentee.
Mandy said: “But all I got back was that it is a matter for the Egyptian authorities and she declined to meet with me.”
In the letter received from Minister Mcentee, seen by this paper, it stated: “Thank you for your correspondence to the Minister for Justice, Helen Mcentee, TD, concerning the abduction of your two sons.
“The Minister again offers her sincere sympathies for the difficult circumstances you have outlined.
“The Minister understands that you had a productive meeting with Tanaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Micheal Martin, on November 21, 2023, in Government Buildings.
AIRPORT
“It is the Minister’s understanding that during the course of that meeting, the Tanaiste advised you to seek to appoint a local lawyer in Egypt to engage with both the Egyptian legal system and the Good Intentions Committee.
“While the Minister is hugely sympathetic to the very difficult circumstances of your case, the Minister recommends that you follow the course of action proposed in your recent meeting with the Tanaiste and feels that there would be limited benefit in meeting with you at this time.
“I can assure you that the Central Authority of this Department is aware of this case – unfortunately, they can only assist on cases where children have been removed from this jurisdiction to a country that has signed up to the
1980 Hague Convention. As Egypt has not signed up to the 1980
Hague Convention, they are not in a position to help.
“The Minister can only suggest that you continue to engage with your legal representative both in
Ireland and Egypt and that this can lead to a positive outcome for you and your children.”
Mandy said: “I am completely derailed. Two innocent Irish citizens have been kidnapped by their dad and I haven’t seen them since. All I want are my children back.
“I had a meeting with the Good Intentions Committee with Egypt’s Department of Foreign Affairs and they told me Irish Government intervention is required to help get my children returned.”
She said in 2021 the then Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney met with the Egyptian ambassador to discuss the repatriation of Egyptian artefacts as part of a Kinship project.
Mandy said: “They can draw up a policy on returning artefact but can’t draw up a policy on returning kidnapped children.”
Mandy, who is originally from Monaghan but now living in Dundalk, Co Louth, met her husband in 2013 when they were both working in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. Mandy says she was alone in a foreign country when he took their children and was extremely distressed, but got no assistance.
She said: “I contacted the Irish Consular service in Cairo and the Department of Foreign Affairs, not a single person did anything for me. I knew I was not going to be helped. I knew I was on my own.”
She made her way to the airport, and phoned her husband, saying she’d be there and that she could bring the children home but he never turned up. Mandy reported the shocking kidnapping of her children to Dundalk Garda sstation and is now waiting since 2022 for the Director of Public Prosecutions to issue an International Arrest Warrant.
Mandy added: “A mother in France went through similar to what I am going through and France was able to issue an International Arrest Warrant within three months, Brazil did
I knew I was not going to be helped. I knew I was on my own MANDY KELLY ON HER ORDEAL IN CAIRO
the same.”