Skah Would Pursue the Norwegian Government in International Courts for Kids Kidnapping

During a press conference at the Moroccan Royal Athletics Federation, Khalid Skah, a former Moroccan track champion (the Olympic 10,000-meter gold medallist in 1992) said that he would sue the Norwegian government for kidnapping his two minor children Selma, 16 years old and Tarik, 13 years old.

  The former Olympian said Tarik and Selma had lived in Rabat since 2006 and that their Norwegian mother, Anne Cecilie Hobscot, left Morocco of her own will in 2007 to live in Norway.

  Skah condemned the behaviour of the Norwegian embassy and government, "which did not denounce the irresponsible behaviour of its ambassador in Rabat, who made a series of breaches and violated diplomatic rules and conventions. Skah described the actions of the Norwegian ambassador, Bjoern Olav Blokhus, «like a real gang leader when he kidnapped my children» and arranged to have them exit Morocco «in obscure and illegal conditions. »

  According to the Moroccan Foreign Ministry, the children left the country towards Norway from a marina in northern Morocco after a stay at the Norwegian residence in Rabat.

  Skah said he is in touch with national, Arab and international civil society stakeholders to prepare for his case. He also point out that the newspapers of Norway are trying to tarnish his image and claim that his two children were ill-treated. Skah also emphasized that the deportation of his children was a crime against children themselves, adding that it’s up to Morocco to decide the custody of the children with justice and democracy since there is a family law and a family court which regulates these issues in morocco.

  Skah who showed pictures that prove the close relationship between him and his children did not go so further from the possibility that his children may bore a kind of pressure by his Norwegian ex-wife Anne Cecilie Hopstock, to testify against him, adding that the involvement of two minor children in such a case, opposed children’s rights and international conventions. "I am in anguish. My children now are living under the pressure of the Norwegian government," said the Moroccan Olympian Khalid Skah.

  In the same vein, Foreign Minister, Taib Fassi Fihri, met his Norwegian counterpart, Jonas Gahr Store, and informed him of the facts proving the involvement of Norway’s embassy in Rabat in the illegal exit from the Moroccan territory of Khalid Skah’s two children.

  "They, Mr. Skah’s children, came to our embassy because they feared for their lives. We had good reason to believe them and (Foreign Minister) Jonas Gahr Stoere himself decided that they would be welcome to the (ambassador’s) residence and we do not think we did anything reprehensible," Norwegian foreign ministry spokesman Bjoern Jahnsen told AFP. "After a few days, their mother and themselves asked to leave and we did not have to ask them questions about what they counted on doing," he added.

  To recall, the Moroccan government also rejected the argument of "the duty to protect" when it involves bringing the children to the ambassador’s residence, underlining that the issue is far from being settled and the outcome is bitter.