WASHINGTON — Maryland lawmakers are again pressing the Tunisian government to resolve an international kidnapping case ahead of a high-profile meeting Thursday between the president of that country and President Barack Obama.
Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland raised the case of a Prince George's County child taken to Tunisia four years ago during a meeting Wednesday with Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi, an aide confirmed. Cardin and Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski of Maryland also wrote a letter to Essebsi on Wednesday requesting that the country honor U.S. custody orders in the case.
It's not clear whether Cardin, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, secured any commitments from Essebsi.
Eslam Chebbi, who will turn 9 on Sunday, and his sister were taken by their father to Tunisia in 2011, according to the FBI. Chebbi's sister was later returned to her mother, Edeanna Johnson-Chebbi, a U.S. citizen who was raised in Maryland.
Advocates are pressing the matter ahead of Essebsi's visit with Obama. The leaders are expected to discuss the historic transformation taking place in the country following the protests in 2010 that sparked the Arab spring, as well as security and economic matters.
Advocates raised the case last year, when then-Tunisian Prime Minister Mehdi Jomaa met with Obama, but Johnson-Chebbi still has not secured the release of her son.
Johnson-Chebbi's ex-husband, Faical Chebbi, is wanted by the FBI for international parental kidnapping. A U.S. District Court has issued a warrant for his arrest.
Court records in Prince George's County show the couple had an uncontested divorce in 2011, and both parties agreed Johnson-Chebbi would have custody of the children.
But the FBI says Chebbi picked up the children for a scheduled weekend visit and drove them to Dulles International Airport, where all three boarded a flight for Tunisia.
The case underscores the long-standing problem of international child abductions. Custody orders issued in the United States are often ignored overseas. More than 1,000 cases are reported to the State Department each year, and fewer than half of the children are returned.
More than 90 nations, including the United States, have signed a treaty to expedite the review of cross-border abduction cases. Tunisia has not signed the treaty.
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