Mother prevents father from kidnapping child on plane to Denmark

Nurettin Kurt ANKARA

The airplane on which the boy was together with his father and grandmother, was only just stopped as it was waiting for take-off on the runway.

A seven-year-old boy whose father was attempting to take him to Denmark without the permission of his mother was prevented at the last minute at Istanbul’s Sabiha Gökçen Airport just before take-off.

The kidnapping attempt by the father was only just prevented by the efforts of the child’s mother.

The boy was born in Denmark, where his unmarried parents had met and were living together. The father later went to the Turkish Embassy in Copenhagen to register the child under his responsibility, and the couple, who are both Turkish citizens, later moved to the Turkish capital Ankara.

After a while, the woman wanted to leave the man on grounds that he was being violent toward her, and charges were pressed against him at an Ankara criminal court for “attempted murder.”

The man then sued the woman for “not taking good care of the child” and demanded custody of their child. However, the judge ruled on Nov. 19 that the boy must stay with his mother.

Just one day after the decision, the man tried to flee with his child to Denmark from Istanbul’s Sabiha Gökçen Airport, on the Asian side of the city.

Upon receiving news of the attempted escape, the woman notified the Ankara court about the kidnapping attempt and the judge issued a written decision that the boy was “forbidden from exiting the country due to the possibility of being kidnapped,” and ordered for the necessary precautions to be taken.  

The airplane on which the boy was together with his father and grandmother, was only just stopped as it was waiting for take-off on the runway, after the judge’s decision was handed to the airport police.

While the child was being handed back to his mother in Ankara, his father and grandmother were taken to the police department for questioning.

According to the Turkish penal code, children under the age of 18 are not allowed to leave the country without the written permission of the parents or a custody decision issued by the court.

The grandmother of the child has reportedly claimed that they were taking the boy for a vacation.