Muslim woman 'followed husband's orders'

28 June 2005 06:45

A Muslim woman alleged to have been recruited to help abduct five children from Norfolk and take them to Libya told a court yesterday that she had only gone on the trip with her husband because she had to "obey him".

Wearing a veil completely covering her face, Wedad Ahmed, 38, said through the help of an interpreter that her husband Mustafa Abushima, 45, had not discussed with her the trip to Morocco, in which it is alleged they posed as parents of the five abducted children.

She told the jury at Norwich Crown Court: "When my husband gives an order I have to obey him. I cannot do anything but."

She said that at the time her youngest child was six months old and she did not want to leave her children.

"I was not feeling well at that time so my husband told me, 'It's a good opportunity for you to relax and regain your health. It will be good for you to go'.

"He said he was going to get in touch with his family in Libya to meet us in Morocco because he cannot go to Libya."

She said he had not discussed any arrangements with her and only told her she would be travelling in a minibus with other strangers.

She said she had not thought it unusual that the five children were not with their mother and she denied she had ever pretended to be the mother of the five children or guard the children like prisoners in a hotel room.

Ahmed also said she did not know Azzedin Journazi, the father of the abducted children, and said the idea of the trip did not appeal to her - even if they had travelled with friends.

"Even if they are friends I still would not have felt very good about the trip. Wearing the veil all the time restricts me."

She added that the children had all behaved normally during the trip.

Asked how she would feel if she had known they were being taken without the permission of their mother she replied: "As a mother with 11 children, I think a child should be with their mother.

"Their mother is like water to her children. They cannot live without her. Even in Islam we say that children should be with their mother and they should be good to her."

Wedad and her husband Abushima, from Manchester, are accused of conspiring with others to abduct the children in June 2000.

The children's mother Anita Elgirnazi, of Saxlingham Nethergate, near Norwich, was granted a resident's order for the children after the couple split in 1999, but feared they would be snatched.

The court was told the children - Rumaysa, then 11, Safiya, then nine, Ali, then seven, Hamza, then four, and Aisha, then two - were taken out via Dover.

Mr Journazi could not take the children out of the country because his passport did not contain the names of his offspring, the court heard.

But it is alleged that Wedad and Abushima posed as the children's parents so they could be taken out of the country to Libya.

The trial continues.

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