Mother fights to bring back sons being ‘held in Egypt’ by ex husband

A mother has revealed her Egyptian husband held her prisoner in his country for a week – and that he still has their two sons, who she hasn’t seen since 2022, and claims he wants €500,000 to return the two boys to her.

Mandy Kelly, 37, from County Monaghan, met Ramy Gamal when she was 27 and living in Dubai.

She had moved to the country four years earlier, looking for career opportunities, after the 2008 crash meant there were few jobs available locally.

According to Ms Kelly, she loved the ‘challenge’ of her teaching job in Dubai, and also enjoyed the lifestyle, which she described to the Irish Independent as ‘amazing’. 

After meeting Gamal, an Egyptian banker who was also working in Dubai on a night out, Ms Kelly initially found him ‘charming…polite, clever’.

However, she now says his kind exterior was an ‘act’.

The two started a relationship, with Ms Kelly even travelling to Egypt to meet Gamal’s family.

And while his family was Muslim and hers Catholic, she says religion was never an issue for them, and he did not expect her to convert.

After dating for four years, and having both visited each other’s home country and met each other’s family, the couple decided to tie the knot.

According to Ms Kelly, her plan had always been to return to Ireland – something she says she had made very clear throughout the relationship with Gamal.

After getting married in Ireland in July 2017, the couple rented a house on the outskirts of Dublin.

They both found jobs, with Ms Kelly working as an education administrator and Gamal as a customer care agent.

It was after their first son, Zayn, was born in May 2019 that ‘cracks started to appear’ in the marriage.

Ms Kelly told the outlet that she felt isolated, and that her husband had started to ‘devalue and disregard’ her. However, at the time, she didn’t pay too much heed, assuming that all marriages had their issues.

In addition, she was extremely busy with work and childcare, as she hadn’t been back working in Ireland long enough to use all the maternity benefits, and so had to return to her job when her baby was just six weeks old.

In a bid to ease the financial pressure on the family, Ms Kelly did a post-graduate diploma in executive management, hoping to improve her employment opportunities.

At the time, she says, her husband was in and out of work, and she felt under pressure to keep everything together.

Describing herself as the ‘breadwinner’, Ms Kelly said she was paying for their rent and childcare, and that in retrospect, she believes Gamal resented her for it.

As a result, she became increasingly isolated, never socialising, and having work as her only outlet. 

In November 2020, they had their second child, another son they named Kareem. 

Being able to take paid maternity leave relieved some of the financial strain on the couple, and things appeared to be looking up. She even bought a family home in Dundalk, Co Lout, and was feeling lucky to have two healthy children.

However, Gamal’s resentment then became worse, with his expectations of life in Ireland not living up to the reality, in Ms Kelly’s opinion. 

She said her husband constantly complained that she was not at his ‘beck and call’, and that he could’t believe how hard people in Ireland worked.

On top of that, he appeared resentful of her career success, despite expecting her to earn money and look after their children. 

Looking back now, she says, she knows her colleagues knew that ‘something wasn’t quite right’. Ms Kelly was very down, and her confidence was gone.

The following July, Gamal decided the family should travel to Egypt so that the boys could meet his mother and brothers – a trip Ms Kelly was supportive of, as her mother-in-law had not yet met the babies.

Due to delays in arranging the children’s passports, and because of Covid, it was not until the next year, in February 2022, that they were able to travel to Egypt. 

Ms Kelly had no reason to suspect anything was awry: ahead of the holiday, her husband had renewed his visa, and spoke of his plans to become an Irish citizen. He also visited the school their son Zayn was due to start at later that year.

However, once the family arrived in Egypt, some things seemed slightly strange.

Instead of staying at a hotel, Gamal insisted on renting an apartment, which Ms Kelly describes as part of his plan to isolate her.

He also wouldn’t give her an Egyptian SIM card, which would have made it easier to contact people, further isolating his wife, who was spending a lot of time alone.

It was not until the day before they were supposed to return to Ireland that Gamal revealed he would not be returning – and that he did not want the boys to go back to Ireland either.

Horrified at what she was hearing, Ms Kelly suggested they take a walk, and calm down, which they did. But upon their return to the apartment, Gamal drove away with the boys.

When he returned later, he allegedly locked Ms Kelly in the apartment for a week.

He then started making demands, telling her that if she wanted to see her children, she would have to sell the family home in Ireland. 

Over the course of the week, Gamal would return to the apartment, where Ms Kelly would try to convince him to let her and the children return to Ireland.

She said: ‘I was a prisoner and he had the kids. I kept praying…I managed to contact the Irish consular service in Cairo and the Department of Foreign Affairs, not a single person did anything for me. 

‘I knew I was not going to be helped. I knew I was on my own. I knew I was in danger and that I had to get out of Egypt if I stood any chance of getting my boys back.’

Ms Kelly managed to make her way to the airport, where she called her husband asking him to bring the boys, who she would take home.

But she waited for hours, and he never arrived, leaving her to fly home alone, where she would continue to fight to get the children back.

Describing herself as distraught and in shock, she landed in Ireland on March 17, 2022.

Despite feeling so desperate, Ms Kelly’s mother reassured her that as she was safe, she would able to do everything she could to get the boys back home. 

Since then, she has continued the fight to be reunited with Zayn and Kareem, even obtaining a High Court order calling for their immediate return, in December 2022.     

Unfortunately, as the court has no authority over Egyptian courts, it was unsuccessful.

Additionally, Egypt is not signed up to the 1980 Hague Convention. This initiative, which uses diplomatic pressure to ensure the prompt return of the child, aims to protect children from international abduction by a parent.

But according to the mother-of-two, she does not even know how her children are faring, as her husband has not communicated with her.

In another attempt to save the boys, Ms Kelly went to Dundalk garda station, where she reported that her children had been kidnapped. A file of the case has been sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions.

And, Ms Kelly has been in touch with the Irish Government over the past two years, pleading with them to help with her case.

She was able to hand a letter outlining the situation to Taoiseach Simon Harris during a recent event in Monaghan.

Mr Harris wrote a response, in which he vowed to help M Kelly bring her children back.

His letter said: ‘I would like to ­express my deepest sympathies for the hardship you and your family have been forced to endure over the last two years. I want to assure you that the Government, through the Department of Foreign affairs and the Department of Justice, remains committed to assisting you to the greatest extent possible.’

Mr Harris added that he wants to help reunite her with Zayn and Kareem as soon as possible.

According to Ms Kelly, she has spent some €35,000 in legal fees trying to get her sons back, and claims he wants €500,000 to return the two boys to her.