Woman pleads with PM to recover children
Ex-husband is accused of abducting their four children and taking them to Iran
OTTAWA— A Vancouver Island woman tearfully pleaded with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Tuesday to call the president of Iran to secure the return of her four children to Canada, saying Iranian officials are ready to co-operate with Canadian authorities in the abduction case.
“Now is the time, I need leadership now,” said Alison Azer told a news conference in Ottawa. “My children can’t rescue themselves.”
Azer said her ex-husband, Saren Mahmudi-Azer, accused of abducting his children and shuttling them to the Middle East last August, was detained by authorities in Iran last month, but then released on bail.
The children, ranging in age from 4 to 11, were taken to Iran through war-torn Iraq following a lengthy and unsuccessful court battle to prevent her ex from travelling with them, she said.
When he failed to bring them back, a Canada-wide warrant was issued and a “red notice” posted by Interpol for the father’s arrest.
Before he was alleged to have abducted his children, Saren Azer was a well-known doctor on Vancouver Island. He was once lauded by former Conservative cabinet minister Jason Kenney as a man “doing tremendous work” with Canada’s Kurdish community by helping Iraqi refugees. He was also featured in one of Stephen Harper’s 2015 promotional videos, where he thanked the former prime minister for extending Canada’s mission to battle Islamist extremists in Iraq.
The children’s mother met personally with Trudeau in May to ask for help, and she said the prime minister made clear the case was being taken seriously. Since then, however, the file has been “collecting dust” on his desk while authorities in Iran wait for Canada to act, she said.
In Montreal Tuesday, Trudeau said the Azer children were “a real preoccupation,” calling it a troubling consular case.
“We continue to be very closely involved, the RCMP, consular services and the government of Canada, to try and bring those kids home to safety,” he said.
But a request from the RCMP to communicate with Interpol Iran was blocked by senior Canadian government officials, Azer alleged.
If that’s true, Global Affairs Minister Stéphane Dion has some explaining to do, said New Democrat foreign affairs critic Hélène Laverdière.
“The minister must immediately explain why officials from his department prevented the RCMP from working to secure the return of these four Canadian children,” she said in a statement.
Global Affairs did not directly respond to the allegation Tuesday, saying that Canadian consular officials were “working closely” with author- ities both at home and abroad, including law enforcement.
Early last month, Mounties on Vancouver Island said the children’s father contacted investigators and assured them the kids were safe. But Azer said she believes her kids are in danger because of their father’s connections with an Iranian separatist group, known as the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran, which has for years advocated for Kurdish rights in Iran. Iranian officials advised Azer, who divorced her husband in June 2014 and has full legal custody of the children in Canada, to seek custody of her children under Iranian law, and she has retained a lawyer in Iran to do just that, she said.
She is considering travelling to Iran herself, although it was unclear Tuesday whether that would be necessary or practical, said Azer.
“I’ll do whatever it takes to bring my children home.”