Mother and daughter escape Egypt after being trapped for three years | 60 Minutes Australia

in the Egyptian capital Cairo Australian mother and daughter am al fin and young Zarine are on the move there's no rest as they constantly move between safe houses remaining anonymous is taking its toll pets a constant emotional drain Amal is drained because for more than 900 days she and her six-year-old daughter have been trapped in Egypt they only came here as tourists and are desperate to come home they're scared and so to our Omar's parents Raz me and Graham back in Melbourne this is wrong these two Australians must be brought back to Australia and Zarine for all the time she's been away she says when are we going back to Melbourne one man is responsible for this family's anguish his name is Mazen Bey you mean an Egyptian citizen and father of young serene but Melbourne he's using every legal trick in the book to stop her and a mole leaving Egypt Mazen Bey Emmy it's time to stop the lies why have you trapped your daughter an ex-wife in Egypt you're a proven liar you're living a comfortable life here in Melbourne whilst keeping your daughter and ex-wife virtual hostage in a country that you refused to live in something's alright with this picture I'm the Australian citizen I'm here an agent I have want to go home he's there he's the Egyptian he's living in Australia where I want to be and won't let us come home [Music] make no mistake it is an absolute injustice that a male and young zareen are trapped here in Egypt lies deceit and manipulation have forced them to live a life in hiding and fear among the chaotic suburbs of Cairo when they should be back at home in the suburbs of Melbourne living a happy family life I'm homesick and every day I'm scared about my daughter what's gonna happen to her just explain to me how are you living day to day here day to day every day is is is waking up and struggling with the realisation that we're still here this is no life for a six-year-old or her mum Pete you have mocked in doors day and night too scared to venture too far outside accepted by the basics and like tonight settle into another hidden flat in Cairo what impact does this have on zareen he's a little girl who should be running around and playing and going to school oh she she wants to go to school she wants friends she just wants the normal things that their kids do I hate having to constantly tell her you know you've got to be quiet we don't want the neighbours attention we don't want anybody's attention on us that's not really normal way for a little girl to grow up this nightmare existence began in mid 2013 at the time a Moll was living what she thought was a happily married life in Melbourne with husband Mazen Baio me and her two elder children from a previous marriage Zara and Suleiman then one day Harumi says he's missing Egypt and wants to take serene home to meet his family so Amal heads off with her husband and their young daughter on a two-week holiday I came here you know in good faith I wanted to meet his family and wanted to do the right thing by my daughter and let her know both sides of her family but he had far more sinister plans he had no intention of ever letting his daughter live Egypt no he'd conned you he conned us yeah when the time came to go home baiu me bluntly told Amol their daughter wouldn't be returning to Australia she'd be staying in Egypt with his family how does he justify that he wants her to learn the language and stay for a short while I was terrified but I didn't have any choice and I had to hold on to the the hope that he would be good to his word do you left Egypt without your daughter I yeah it was it was one of the worst days of my life and she didn't know what was going on did you tell her well how did you explain to her that you'd be leaving her behind hey wouldn't that be tell her you forced you to abandon your daughter here you had no control over this at all and I had no control over it I mean I'm I'm not Egyptian and I don't speak the language I I had no way to argue about it to calm and coerce Ahmad by Ouma he offers to help her get a new Egyptian visitor's visa so she can come back in two months to collect the ring he told me that I needed to sign something a visa papers basically so that I could come back in and pick up Serena there wouldn't be any problems he tricked them all into signing a document he said trust me I'm your husband because it was all in Arabic and mal said what's this he said just trust me this is for your permanent residence so that you can come and go freely into Egypt but that was a lie yeah that was absolutely a lie to support a very cruel plan a male would learn later she was tricked those documents in Arabic were in fact travel bans restricting her and Zarine from ever leaving Egypt together without Burmese consent I can't understand how a person could do that go learn your own child back in Australia a male is distraught without a daughter and powerless in her marriage for six long months beome he keeps coming up with excuses stalling and blocking Amaro every time she tries to book a flight back to Cairo so in secret she and her dad Graham work on a travel plan to get serene back but it would be fraught with danger my dad and I am I flew here um we went to wish it was being kept by her grandmother and went to speak to the family we just went there to talk with them and they're the ones who got really um agitated aggressive that attack by the family is traumatic as it reads in the police statement one uncle hit you the second uncle hit your father broke your father's glasses took a thousand dollars off him took your jewelry they beat you the grandmother then took Zarine your daughter by force while she was still striking you and your dragged out onto the street the grandmother hid serene it reads yeah then they threatened you they said quote they would not let you leave Egypt alive yeah what did they say kill you we'll find you and we'll kill you they're not just threats a few weeks later hired thugs try to kidnap serene men who according to Cairo police have a dangerous criminal history but kidnapping and death threats are just the start of a male's nightmare using those documents he tricked her into signing by uming has laid a trap it's now a male learns her and Zorin's Australian passports are useless an Egyptian Court has imposed travel bans on them after beome he played victim and claimed in a written application he'd never get to see his daughter again if she was allowed to leave Egypt where is Mazen at this stage is he in Egypt no where is he he's in Melbourne yet legally here the court believes he's in Egypt yeah yeah so he lied to the courts here he lied to the courts and MobileMe lied to me yeah but he was successful this is that this is the travel ban yeah they're as old as we can go but the extent of Mazen by UMI's cunning and manipulation is only just starting to unfold and it's staggering you're exposed NASM your court it's finally time for the truth time to stop telling the lies you walk like a man who feels invincible and untouchable but I guess that's what's been allowed to happen to this point how do you describe him totally without emotion I will say this pickable he he's very cold and manipulating but if if you meet him he can be very charming he's also cool calm and collected as we discovered when we tracked down Mazen BME in Melbourne you lie to the Egyptian courts and told them that you were in Egypt you're not you're here in Melbourne living a very comfortable life do you have any concern for serene of course well why do you keep her trapped in Egypt why not let her and her mother come home you're not working for it you're blogging it at every move how are you working to bring your daughter home with respect you don't respect the courts you've lied to the Egyptian courts you you have them believe that you're in Egypt you're not you're here well tell me the truth it'd be nice to hear it from you well this is the truth about Bailey surveillance vision of him shot over the past three months revealing extremely suspicious behavior on the 23rd of November last year around 7:30 at night BAE who me and an accomplice were acting strangely in Melbourne southern suburbs in two separate cars they keep stopping talking and driving off at various locations then after about half an hour they drive their cars into each other head-on the camera capturing the seconds after they've just staged an accident by UMI's accomplice quickly takes photos of the crash scene then police and an ambulance are called but by UMI's acting doesn't end there four weeks ago January 18th he returns to the scene having lodged a claim he meets with an insurance assessor they owe me appears injured he's wearing a leg brace and walking with a crutch but only eight minutes later when he arrives home he's made a remarkable recovery Naomi walks freely without the brace or crutch hang on you're meant to have an injured left leg or now you're hobbling you're holding it we've caught you committing insurance fraud you staged that car accident this is you look at that wearing a brace and a crutch I don't see them now this is ridiculous Mazen it appears you staged a car accident what stage set it up faked you faked it is that a word you're familiar with faking exposing by omean Melbourne is called comfort for a mile back in Egypt trapped with her daughter living in fear with intense regret at the very least if you don't mind me putting it to you you were incredibly naive yeah yeah incredibly so I know I'm sorry to say that did he want the marriage I think it was I think it was convenient for him at that time when you met him what visa was young the student visa temporary student visa so he knew that by marrying you he would get a spousal visa yeah that's obviously what he had in mind that is heartbreaking for you because your marriage was a con was a shame it wasn't real yeah I had to come to terms with the fact that none of it was real what's he playing it I don't think that he wants a mall in Australia because she could make a lot of trouble for him ruined his grand plan to become a citizen he wants Australian citizenship and that was that was his plan I don't think that really had a part to play in in his long-term plan and the fall of this isn't terrible enough there's another twist to this story you come to learn something else about your ex-husband when you're here yeah he has a he has a wife here in Egypt and Jordan yeah he's got a wife and and twin boys was he married to both of you at once he was he wasn't ADA so he's a bigamist as well I somehow am al blocks out the hood and focuses on the ring and her two elder children back in Melbourne who've been denied their mother and little sister for almost three years you're not doing your learner's tests a weekly Skype call home is a male's emotional lifeline Suleiman and Zara have had to navigate high school and teenage life not knowing when they'll next see their mum how much do you miss your mum yeah sometimes it hits really hard because there's a lot of things that I wanted to do with her you know do you find that because your mum is going through so much that even when you do talk to her there's things that you hold back yeah I mean if I'm worried about something I usually don't say it I just tend to keep it in you know and try to deal with it myself you both live in hope mal will come home yes I think here to get up in the morning hoping that someone somewhere will do something I don't know who how but that's what he can do otherwise you collapse and I do not want to collapse and I didn't want a mouth to collapse because if that happens we will lose everything but that is a very real possibility there is only so much injustice one person can bear while fighting a man who's manipulated authorities here in Australia and Egypt as well as trying to raise and protect a bright scared six-year-old daughter in virtual captivity if you wanted to do the right thing you'd bring your daughter and ex-wife home that's the best thing you could do if you had any decency at all Amal and her daughter is certainly not the first Australians to be trapped in Egypt but after almost three years it seems they've been dismissed or forgotten with very little real help from anyone least of all our government they are Australian citizens who are frightened and abandoned and they deserve better you're tired aren't you yeah tired is pretty much sums it up I can see that I'm not being hurtful I hope but I can see someone who is just drained tired I just wanna go home hello I'm Sara our boy thanks for watching to keep up with the latest from 60 minutes Australia make sure you subscribe to our channel you can also download the 9 now app for full episodes and other exclusive 60 minutes content

Channel: 60 Minutes Australia

Views: 1,000,558

Keywords: 60 Minutes, 60 Minutes Australia, Liz Hayes, Charles Wooley, Tara Brown, Allison Langdon, Tom Steinfort, Karl Stefanovic, Jennifer Byrne, Mike Munro, Richard Carleton, Tracey Curro, Paul Barry, Michael Usher, Ross Coulthart, Ian Leslie, Gerald Stone, Sarah Abo, egypt, trapped in egypt, australians overseas, australians stranded overseas, trapped in cairo, amaal finn, zareen finn

Id: _UEdDsnTwSs

Length: 17min 55sec (1075 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 14 2019