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Jordan's courts stall justice for Christian widow
Royal promises yet to be fulfilled
by Barbara G. Baker
Compass (08.12.2003)/ HRWF Int. (08.12.2003) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - Email info@hrwf.net-- A Jordanian Christian mother fighting for legal custody of her two children admitted this week that after more than five years, she has little hope that her countrys judicial system will ever rule in her favor.
And while grateful for the moral support and concern expressed by Jordans royal family and leading government officials, Siham Qandah said she could only trust God to protect her and her children.
Everyone is giving me promises, Qandah told Compass, but no one is really doing anything. I am only counting on God and all the prayers of His people.
The past 10 weeks have been particularly discouraging to Qandah, who has gone again and again to scheduled court hearings in both Amman and the northern city of Irbid, only to have the sessions postponed to a date two or three weeks later.
At the last hearing set for November 23 in Irbid, her childrens Muslim guardian failed to appear even though he had been summoned. So the judge ordered a continuance of the hearing on December 11.
I hardly expect him to show up this next time either, Qandah said. But even if he does, what difference will it make? My lawyer has told me that if he just swears before the Islamic court that he is being a faithful Muslim guardian to my children, the court will accept that as sufficient proof!
So far, no Jordanian court has given serious consideration to evidence which surfaced this past March. The evidence documented the guardians unexplained withdrawal of nearly $20,000 from the childrens trust funds.
In a crisis this past September, Qandah was handed another court ultimatum to turn over her children to their Muslim guardian or face arrest within three days. However, the Irbid civil court order ignored a previous restraining order issued by a higher court in Amman stipulating that Qandah cannot not be arrested or forced to surrender her children until a case pending to disqualify the childrens Muslim guardian is resolved. At present, Qandah remains under the protection of this temporary injunction.
Widowed nine years ago, Qandah has a daughter Rawan now 15, and her son Fadi turned 14 last month. Both children are baptized Christians, but the alleged conversion of their father to Islam three years before he died has forcibly changed their legal identity from Christian to Muslim.
In moderate Jordan, this would rarely pose a custody problem for their Christian mother. But Qandah asked her estranged brother, who had converted to Islam as a teenager, to help her meet Jordans legal requirements by becoming her childrens court-appointed Muslim guardian.
The brother began to appropriate some of their orphan benefits. Then, displeased to learn that his sister continued to raise them as Christians, he filed a court suit, demanding custody of the children so he could raise them as Muslims. After a four-year legal wrangle, the Supreme Court of Jordan ruled in his favor, turning down the mothers last legal appeal on February 28, 2002.
Both Qandah and her children have ended up on the wrong side of Islamic law ever since. Desperate to escape police enforcement of the ruling, the widow and her children went into hiding for weeks at a time in the months following the verdict. After international media covered the case, both intelligence authorities and government leaders began to assure Qandah that a solution would be found.
Since then, Qandah has been given considerable moral support by members of the Jordanian royal family, including Prince Hassan and Prince Mired bin Raed. As a result, her plight has been raised directly with King Abdullah II several times.
As recently as September and October, concerned members of the U.S. Congress reportedly addressed inquiries to the king about the case, and Prince Mired discussed it again with him in mid November. The prince told Compass last week that King Abdullah was a bit surprised that the widows case had not yet been resolved.
But because its a case in the courts, Prince Mired noted, it remains quite difficult for anyone in the royal family to interfere. We do not want to be accused of tampering with the judiciary, he stressed.
In a rare exception, King Abdullah intervened last year after a military court sentenced Jordans first female legislator to 18 months in prison. Toujan Faisal was granted a special royal pardon which cancelled her punishment but did not vindicate her of the crime.
It will work out in the end for Siham, so long as His Majesty is in the picture, Prince Mired said confidently. It might be a little bit of bumpy road, but in the end it will work out, I am sure.
Meanwhile, month after month goes by and Qandah faces the tension of postponed court hearings, along with the worries of unpaid lawyers fees.
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Jordanian widow's legal tangle intensifies
Last desperate appeal to be filed September 21
By Barbara G. Baker
Compass (19.09.2003)/ HRWF Int. (23.09.2003) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - Email info@hrwf.net - Confirmation of a new warrant for the imminent arrest of Jordanian Christian widow Siham Qandah marked an alarming turn this week in the mothers legal battle to retain custody of her two minor children.
Two days ago, an Islamic court in northern Jordan ordered Qandah to turn over her daughter Rawan, 15, and son Fadi, 13, to a Muslim guardian within three days or go to jail.
The Irbid lower courts ruling violated a restraining order issued by the Supreme Islamic Court in Amman on August 3. Under the restraining order, the arrest warrant against Qandah and removal of her children are both stayed until the higher court first rules on a pending case to change the childrens guardianship.
But the Irbid Islamic court reportedly ignored the restraining order, despite the fact that Qandahs lawyers had put it on file in Irbid more than six weeks ago.
Without the hearts and prayers of Christians around the world for us, I would have already lost the children, Qandah told Compass a few hours after she learned of the new arrest order. But God always opens the way in front of us, delaying these court decisions against us.
Qandahs lawyer is poised to file a new appeal when the Irbid courts open at 8 a.m. on September 21, after the Friday-Saturday weekend recess. This is our only chance to gain a little time, maybe one or two more weeks, Qandah said.
Over the summer months, the prominent Amman law firm which had agreed to represent Qandah pro bono (free of charge) appeared to be backpedaling on the case.
When Prince Mired bin Raed of the Jordanian royal family met with Qandah in May, he commented that the Christian widow appeared to have suffered from a lack of expert legal counsel on her case. So at the princes request, his personal attorney in the Petra law firm began researching the case.
During an interview in his Amman law offices on May 22, Petra lawyer Mohammed Shaheen al-Tamimi told Compass that his firm had obtained documents to prove that the Muslim guardian of Qandahs children was disqualified to exercise custody and had misused his authority.
Al-Tamimi had estimated that he would win a court decision within a month to remove Abdullah al-Muhtadi as the childrens guardian, saying he had illegally appropriated about $20,000 from the childrens trust funds which they were to inherit at age 18.
On June 16, a representative of the Petra firm confirmed by telephone from Amman that they were about to file legal action on Qandahs case during the coming few days. The lawyer specified that the presiding judge of the Supreme Islamic Court of Jordan was giving all his support for the case.
But a week later, investigating lawyers learned that in fact al-Muhtadis withdrawal checks from the childrens trust funds carried the signature of this judge, who is a relative of attorney al-Tamimi.
The judge himself later informed Qandah that he and his assistant had signed the guardians checks from the childrens orphan benefits. One of the unexplained withdrawals was for 6,000 JD, more than $8,800.
After this discovery, the Petra firm appeared to shelve its efforts to press for a quick resolution on the case. Finally on July 26, when Qandah was facing imminent arrest, the firm filed an administrative appeal to the Supreme Islamic Court, requesting an investigation of al-Muhtadis handling of the childrens financial affairs. To date, the Islamic court has not responded to this appeal.
In the meantime, the Irbid Court of First Instance had again issued orders to jail Qandah for 30 days if she failed to turn over her children to their Muslim guardian by July 26. Qandah and her children live a few miles from Irbid in the small northern town of Husn.
After two consecutive appeals filed by Qandahs local lawyer were refused by the Irbid court, the desperate widow found another Amman law firm willing to represent her. These new lawyers won the restraining order issued seven weeks ago by the Supreme Islamic Court.
With four lawyers now working on several legal briefs in both Irbid and Amman, Qandah faces about $5,000 in lawyers fees in the near future. All the cases focus on the questionable trust fund withdrawals, changing the childrens guardianship, certifying her daughters legal maturity under Islamic law and appealing the forced transfer of child custody from their mother to their Muslim uncle. Jordans Islamic courts will consider all the pending cases.
The first hearing, to change the childrens guardianship, has been set to begin in Amman on September 21. With the whereabouts of al-Muhtadi unknown, Qandah placed an ad in the local newspaper on September 14, as required by Jordanian law, to summon her brother to the court hearing.
Estranged from Qandah and the rest of his Christian family since he converted to Islam as a teenager, al-Muhtadi is the childrens maternal uncle. Shortly after Qandahs soldier husband died in 1994, an Islamic court produced a certificate alleging that her husband had secretly converted from Christianity to Islam three years before his death. The claim could not be contested, so under Jordanian law, their two children automatically became Muslims.
But as a Christian, the mother could not collect their monthly military benefits. So Qandah asked al-Muhtadi to serve as their court-designated guardian.
But her brother often proved unwilling to transfer the childrens benefits to Qandah, and three years later he opened a court case demanding custody so he could raise them as Muslims. After four years of court proceedings, Qandah lost her last Supreme Court appeal in February 2002, and was ordered to turn over her children to al-Muhtadi.
Over the past 18 months, the widow and her children have gone into hiding several times to avoid police enforcement of the ruling, disrupting their lives and schooling for weeks at a time. The children are blacklisted by court order from leaving Jordan.
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Jordan court orders Christian mother jailed
Eleven-month child custody standoff still unresolved
by Barbara G. Baker
Compass (24.01.2003)/HRWF Int. (27.01.2003) - Email: info@hrwf.net - Website: www.hrwf.net - A court in northern Jordan has ordered a Christian widow sent to jail for 30 days if she refuses to hand over her two minor children to be raised as Muslims.
Siham Qandah was notified by telephone at her home in Husn four days ago that a court warrant for her arrest had been issued January 16 by the Irbid Court of First Instance. According to the caller, unless she immediately surrendered custody of her daughter Rawan, 14, and son Fadi, 12, to their court-appointed Muslim guardian, she would be arrested and sent to prison.
Qandah was shocked by the court order, since she had received firm assurances from high-placed officials in Amman three months ago that a solution would be found for her to retain custody of her children, who have been raised as Christians.
"Siham was told [in October] to go back to her home, put her children in school again, and relax, because no one would be allowed to touch her," a close friend commented.
But once again, Qandah and her children no longer feel safe in Husn. With a week left in their winter school break, Rawan and Fadi are "living from house to house," a close relative told Compass today. "After this week, it would be very dangerous for them to stay at home. And if the police find their mother, they may take her to prison."
As soon as Qandah's lawyer obtained a copy of her arrest warrant three days ago, he filed an appeal for a temporary stay on the order. The Irbid court has issued no decision on the appeal, although it is expected to do so early next week. Until the court responds officially, Qandah was told, she is protected from arrest.
"But even if the judge accepts the appeal," one of Qandah's brothers told Compass today, "they are going to delay only for one week, or at most two weeks. So we don't know what will happen then." "The appeal is just buying time," a friend in Amman agreed. "I don't see any hope."
After a four-year legal wrangle, Jordan's Supreme Court made a final ruling last February that Qandah must relinquish her children. But Jordanian authorities have not yet enforced it, apparently due to international media coverage and appeals to the Jordanian royal family to resolve the case.
The youngest of 10 children, Qandah has two sisters living in Canada as well as a brother pastoring a Nazarene church in Illinois. Her brother in the United States has offered full support for her and her children, if they are allowed to leave Jordan.
But Qandah's children are blacklisted by court order from leaving Jordan, although Qandah herself is not. And so far, Western governments have been unwilling to cause a potential flap with Jordan by offering visas to her and her children.
In the face of growing diplomatic inquiries into the moderate Arab state's handling of the case, recent developments are being watched closely by Prince Hasan, brother to the late King Hussein. On November 14, Jordanian King Abdullah II was reportedly briefed on the young widow's judicial dilemma.
According to one of Prince Hasan's advisers monitoring the case, government officials cannot "play around" with the ruling of the nation's highest judiciary court, which is constitutionally independent. "But we are trying our best to find a way to defer the matter, until we find a solution," he told Compass.
"She is terrified. I know that," he admitted. "But I hope, I hope nothing will happen." The drawn-out custody case is based on the sole "evidence" of a highly irregular document claiming that Qandah's Christian husband had secretly converted to Islam several years before his death. Under Jordanian law, that automatically makes his minor children Muslims, as well.
Qandah found the claim preposterous, since the so-called "conversion" certificate was written and signed by two Muslim witnesses, with only a scrawled "X" for her husband's signature. But she could not legally contest it, since it was certified by an Islamic court. As a Christian, she could not even draw her children's inheritance benefits, but was forced to find a Muslim to be their court-appointed guardian.
So she tracked down her long-estranged brother, who had converted to Islam as a teenager. Now a mosque prayer leader, he agreed to be the children's legal guardian. But when he later learned the children were enrolled in Christian religion classes at school and becoming active in the local Baptist church, her brother began to object. In May 1998, he filed a civil case demanding custody of her children in order to raise them as Muslims.
"Despite all this, the Lord has put a peace into her heart," one of Qandah's friends told Compass today. "But she is tired from all of this. And she knows that even if she somehow wins the case against her brother, he will still be after her, even to the last day of his life."
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