Dad’s fears for Kiwi mum in Algerian custody fight

A NEW ZEALAND mother has begun ‘‘retreating into her shell’’ as she fights for the return of her children in a bitter custody battle in Algeria, her father says.

Mihi Puriri, 33, wanted to be allowed to see her son, Zakaria, on his first birthday, which was last Saturday.

She has not seen her daughters, Iman, 5, and Assiya, 2, or Zakaria, now 1, for nearly three weeks.

The family left their home in Kaikohe to travel to Algeria last August on the understanding that the father of her boxer husband, Mohamed Azzaoui, was gravely ill. When they arrived, she says, they found he was not sick, and their passports were taken.

Ms Puriri and her children had been put in an apartment in the town of Mostaganem, about 300 kilometres from the capital, Algiers, a spokesman for the family said.

After a diplomatic party from New Zealand’s embassy in Cairo failed to resolve the issue, Ms Puriri was shifted by consular staff.

Her father, Northland lawyer Wiremu Puriri, has not spoken to his grandchildren but spoke to his daughter about 10 days ago.

They had a ‘‘frank discussion on the basis she kept me updated’’, but he thought she was ‘‘retreating into her shell’’.

Mr Puriri said he was concerned about the media strategy of the man acting as a family spokesman.

‘‘It’s best fought out in a courtroom, not in public,’’ he said.

In a statement issued on Friday Mr Puriri said ‘‘the publicity in drip-feed form has been initiated by [the spokesman] and in my estimation is more geared to the concluding of a major English tabloid sale of the ‘story’ . . . than with the interests of my daughter and grandchildren.’’