Italian woman released in Egypt after Tajani intervenes

Nessy Guerra, an Italian woman

currently obliged to live in Egypt with her three-year-old

daughter due to a custody battle with her estranged Egyptian

husband, was released on Wednesday following an intervention by

Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani after Egyptian police went to

her Cairo home and took her to a station overnight, sources

said.

Guerra has returned home with her daughter, the sources said.

The Egyptian police said Guerra had been detained in relation to

an order by an Egyptian judge saying the father must have access

to the child.

Guerra received assistance from the Italian Ambassador Agostino

Palese, who managed to secure her release following Tajani's

intervention, and the Consul Giulia De Nardis.

The estranged husband, Tamer Hamouda, has a criminal record for

a number of offences in Italy and was recently arrested—and

subsequently released on bail—for making threats against the

Italian Consul in Hurghada.

Guerra, a native of Sanremo, has been convicted of adultery, a

criminal offence in Egypt, following a complaint by Hamouda.

"She was taken away at 3 am along with her child, on the orders

of the public prosecutor's office, to allow the father, Tamer

Hamouda, to see her," Guerra's lawyer Agata Armanetti told Sky

Tg24 before she was released.

"The prosecutor's order cannot be enforced because there is no

court ruling establishing custody or visitation rights.

"What we fear is that this is a ruse to arrest Nessy and send

her to prison.

"I ask myself how they can consider allowing a madman with a

long criminal record to see his daughter, and for a woman who is

a victim of violence to be treated this way.

"I want to know where the Istanbul Convention on gender-based

violence ends and where people's rights begin".

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