Egypt: American wife of Embassy accuser speaks out

Egypt: American wife of Embassy accuser speaks out

Bikya Masr

19 September 2009

Children in Egypt face uphill battle. -archive

CAIRO: The American wife of an Egyptian man who accused three Marines inside the American Embassy in Cairo of assaulting him last month has finally spoken out in a letter sent to local Egyptian newspaper Al-Masry Al-Youm in response to the incident. The woman, Lydia, said in her letter that she wanted to correct information she described as “false” that had been said by her husband, Ahmed Mohamed al-Takruri that “may distort” her image and reputation.

“I am a Muslim American woman who converted to Islam out of conviction of Islamic teachings of tolerance and found the psychological comfort in it and I got married to Mr. Ahmed al-Takruri in 2005. I already had a 7-year-old daughter from a previous marriage and we agreed to live in the United States, where we both work and where we have our house and lives,” she said, refuting her husband’s previous claims to the contrary.

“He promised that he would treat my daughter Jasmine well, but his promise was not fulfilled, as he went on to abuse her for no reason and started to mistreat me. He became very nervous, mad for any reason and would yell and swear constantly,” she continued.

Al-Takruir, a mortgage marketing company owner told police last month that he was beaten “severely, causing several injuries” before he was taken to a local hospital where his injuries were allegedly addressed.

Al-Takruri said in the police statement at the time that he is married to an American woman and that she had disappeared from their home accompanied by their daughter on August 5, after he refused to give permission for them to travel to the United States. He added that he had been “searching for them in vain” and that after a few days discovered her mobile phone, which had the Embassy phone numbers recently dialed.

Upon learning this information, al-Takruri went to the Embassy, where he claims he was met with force.

“I contacted the embassy and requested a meeting with Consul,” he said in further comments reported by Youm al-Saba’a newspaper.

“I went at the time given and entered the Embassy, accompanied by my mother and I was surprised by three Americans with pistols, [who] started to assault me; kicking me to the ground in front of my mother, who was also assaulted when she objected this treatment.

His wife, however, says that when she was asked by her husband to travel to Cairo to get to know his family, as his mother is Egyptian, she agreed, hoping that he would become better and improve the way he treated them. “He got better for a while,” then started to treat them in a very cruel way, she said.

“His severity with me and my  daughter continued, and when I asked him to allow me to travel to the United States, he did not object, all he asked for is to let my family send me the money for the tickets. When I arrived in the States, I discovered that I was  pregnant, so I called him and told him. Once he heard of this, he changed the tone of his voice, and talked to me in a very polite way, so I wondered why he changed all of a sudden,” her letter read.

Al-Takruri won a decision by Egypt’s family court to put his wife and two children on a travel ban shortly after the incident became public. The ruling means that the wife and children are unable to leave the country, despite no legal reasons to force them to remain in the country.

She says that the goodwill toward her and her children were short-lived. Upon giving birth to their second child, his attitude completely changed. Lydia argues that al-Takruri “asked me to forsake my child and leave him.” She refused this demand even though he offered her a sum of money in return, and it was then that he stole her passports, including the children.

“He threatened to kill us and vowed to bring me back to the U.S. and never allow me to see my child again,” she says, prompting her to take action on her own.

She explained that these circumstances compelled her to leave her house, with her children, after she felt threatened and after her daughter was beaten several times. “All I ask for is him to stay away from us and let me live with them in peace and that he can visit them whenever he wants without harming us.”

**reporting by Mohamed Abdel Salam

BM