CORRECTION: Woman Wins Landmark Case, Custody of Children
By JOSEPH MAYTON (Middle East Times)
CORRECTING STORY INITIALLY TITLED: Coptic Woman Wins Landmark Case, Custody of Children
The initial story published on February 3 wrongfully attributed a landmark custody victory to a Coptic woman for her 9-year-old son to another woman, Camillia, who currently finds herself in a custody battle. However, it has come to the attention of MET after speaking with Camellia that the lawyer who initially revealed the information has lied to Camellia and the press about this case "for personal gains." This correction hopes to end any confusion that may have occurred in errors in the initial story.
On February 3, the Middle East Times reported that a Christian woman in Egypt won a landmark case in December to retain custody of her child despite the father's conversion to Islam. Another Coptic woman in a similar situation, Camellia, said at the time that the victory had garnered hope that her situation can follow the same victorious path.
However, since the publication of the article, new information has surfaced that Naguib Gobrial, a lawyer who presented his organization as representing Camellia, lied to her and the press in disseminating false details surrounding the case.
According to Camellia, when she returned to the court in late January to check the details of her own case, the full impact of the lies of Gobrial came to light. She said that in fact, the woman who won the case was not Coptic, rather a French woman who had converted to Islam.
She told MET on Friday that Gobrail "had lied" about the case and she met personally with the ruling Judge Khalil Mostafa who gave her the proper information surrounding the case.
Mostafa based his ruling on a newly amended child law in 2008 that gives more weight to children's opinions. The father had converted to Islam two years ago and according to Egyptian law, all official papers must then change the child's religion as well. This increases the chances of the father maintaining custody. However, in the ruling, Mostafa was able to give custody of the child to the mother after being presented with a document stating the woman's faith in Islam, Camellia said.
At the time, Camellia believed that the court ruling would help create the means for her to return custody of her children, but new details have changed her optimism.
"He [Gorbail] tries to take credit for things, but I think he wants to be known as the spokesman for Copts in Egypt and abroad," she argued.
Camellia has been battling in court since 2006, after she lost custody of her children to her ex-husband who had converted to Islam. In September last year she lost her initial appeal and Gobrail had rekindled hope that she would regain custody of her children, she said.
Gobrail, who heads the Egyptian Union of Human Rights Organizations (EUHRO) told MET in January that "Camellia's situation is a tragedy but the new verdict holds hope for her and many others."
Gobrail continued that the implementation of the verdict could take months, even years, to be carried out.
He said that courts are too often bias against Christians because of their religion, but in reality, this case did not involve a Christian woman.
"In my opinion, some of the court rulings have degrading comments about Christianity such as: so the child doesn't eat or drink from what is considered forbidden in Islam, many examples that ignores citizenship laws," he added.
Yet, it is likely that he was simply attempting to create his own fame and importance by falsifying details of the case, a Coptic activist and scholar said on Friday.
The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) sent MET a statement stating that the "the story has caused severe damage to her children's case by falsely stating that she has won the case and quoting her as welcoming a court decision that has no relation whatsoever to her case."
The reality for Camellia and her twin boys is that she does not have a landmark case to draw upon in her appeal and she said that the optimism that she had in January has been lost after she discovered the lawyer's lies.
A number of interpretations of Islamic law argue that when a parent changes religion, the children must then follow Islam. Opponents argue that this "contradicts the citizenship laws" of the Egyptian constitution that are religiously blind.