Supreme Court Justice Thomas A. Aurelio awarded to a French Jewish mother yesterday custody of her nine-year-old daughter whom her husband, and Egyptian-born Christian, had threatened to take to the United Arab Republic.
Mrs. Jeanne Wassef told the court that if her daughter were raised as a citizen of Egypt, she would never be able to see her again “because of my religion.”
Justice Aurelio said he did not think “any civilized country in the world would deprive a mother of the custody of her child when she proved to be a fit guardian.”
Mrs. Wassef testified that her husband, Aziz Wassef, took the child, Donia, from their Paris home, telling the mother he planned to take the girl on a month’s vacation to the United States with a promise to bring Donia back in time for school in September. Instead, she said, he refused to return to France.
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