St. John’s, N.L.: Police in Newfoundland and Labrador have charged a 36-year-old man with parental abduction after he allegedly took his five-year-old daughter to Egypt in defiance of a court order prohibiting her removal from the province.
The child’s mother, Bouchra Marbouhi, says she last saw her daughter on Sept. 26, when the girl left for a sleepover with her father, Ahmed ElGammal. The next day, Marbouhi received a chilling text message:
“We went back to our country,” ElGammal wrote, later adding, “Do you want to raise her on our religion and ethics, you know where to find us.”
Marbouhi, 31, says she hasn’t spoken to or seen her daughter since.
“I miss her smell. I miss her voice,” she said tearfully. “When that happened, I felt like my life stopped.”
The Royal Newfoundland Constabulary (RNC) confirmed an arrest warrant has been issued for ElGammal on one count of parental abduction in contravention of a custody order. The case remains under investigation, but police said it did not meet the criteria for an Amber Alert.
Court Order Ignored
Court filings show Marbouhi had obtained an emergency non-removal order from the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador in May 2024, requiring both parents to keep their daughter in the St. John’s metro area unless they had written consent from the other.
Marbouhi, who was living at Iris Kirby House, a women’s shelter, said she felt secure with the order in place.
“That non-removal order gave me a false sense of safety,” she said. “No one told me it’s just a paper — that there’s no mechanism to enforce it.”
She believes ElGammal acquired a new passport for their daughter during a recent trip abroad, allowing him to leave the country undetected.
International Complications
The RNC says it has asked Interpol and the RCMP to assist in confirming the child’s safety. However, Canada has no extradition treaty with Egypt, complicating any effort to bring her home.
Marbouhi’s lawyers say they’ve provided authorities with an address where they believe the father and child are staying, but there’s been no confirmation of the girl’s wellbeing.
Immigration Status Adds to Struggle
Marbouhi, a Moroccan citizen, came to Canada in May 2024 on a closed work visa and had applied for a temporary resident permit for victims of family violence. The application was denied the day before her daughter was taken.
Her lawyer, Charlotte Sullivan, said the decision is now under judicial review.
“We’ve reached out to her MP’s office to expedite the process,” Sullivan said.
Marbouhi says she’s desperate to return to Egypt to find her daughter.
“I can’t wait that long. I need to go back there and have my child back,” she said.
Back at Iris Kirby House, a chalk message wishing the little girl a happy birthday is fading in the autumn rain — a reminder, Marbouhi says, of the child who should have been there for Halloween, dressed as a princess.
“She’s emotionally not safe,” she said quietly. “And neither am I until she’s home.”
