A mum has not seen or spoken to her son in months after he was abducted and taken to Saudi Arabia.
Ranem Elkhalidi, an asylum seeker who lives in Cheshire, said she is in a "living nightmare" after her seven-year-old son Ibrahim was taken by her estranged husband. The boy, from Helsby, was taken to Saudia Arabia on November 11, last year.
Ibrahim's dad, Hamzah Ibrahim Faraj, breached a court order banning him from taking him out of the country when doing so. Ibrahim, who was born in the UK and speaks only English, has not been seen of heard from since.
Ranem, 25, originally from Palestine, is now desperately trying to secure her son's return with support from police and her local MP Mike Amesbury. Ranem told CheshireLive she last saw her son when she dropped him off at his school in Frodsham.
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She shares custody with Hamzah and Ibrahim was due to stay with his dad from school pick up time on the Friday through to the following Wednesday. But when the school rang Ranem on the Monday morning to say Ibrahim hadn't arrived for class, alarm bells rang.
Ranem told CheshireLive: "It's any parent's worst nightmare. I took Ibrahim to school that day and he ran off and I needed to talk to the teacher to say his dad was going to pick him up. I didn't even manage to hug him that day."
She added: "I was telling everyone about my fears but no one was understanding. I had Ibrahim's travel documents as I was worried Hamzah might do this and I even wrote to the Saudi embassy before this happened to warn them.
"When Hamzah took Ibrahim I had a breakdown. I kept crying and kept thinking about Ibrahim. I keep dreaming about him. I just want to see him.
"I have nightmares every night where I go somewhere with my son and then he goes missing. I can't even hug my son in my dreams. Sometimes I wake up and I am crying. I am taking anti-depressants now and this is helping me to fight more to bring him back."
She said she had tried to contact family members in Saudi Arabia but had been unable to do so. Ranem married Hamzah Ibrahim Faraj in Saudi Arabia in 2014 when she was 16 and he was 24.
They moved to England in 2014, where Ibrahim was born. Their relationship began to deteriorate after they moved to England and the marriage broke down completely in June 2021.
Court documents show Hamzah Ibrahim Faraj is aware of the court case but he has not allowed Ranem to have any contact with Ibrahim since his abduction and he has not kept her informed as to his welfare or where he is living.
Mr Faraj, who is a Saudi national, was subject to a court order which prevented him from taking Ibrahim out of the country. He is now wanted by police for child abduction after breaching the custody order made at Liverpool Family Court on November 3, 2022.
The court documents from the High Court of Justice Family Division state: "Ibrahim was wrongfully removed from England to Saudi Arabia by his father in the midst of court proceedings without the knowledge or consent of his mother or the permission of the court.
"The father was present in court (and legally represented) when a prohibited steps order was made by the family court preventing him from taking the child abroad on November 3 but he breached this order only nine days later."
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