Author: Cynthia R. Fagen
Publication: New York Post
Date: June 25, 2003
URL: http://www.nypost.com/news/worldnews/1805.htm
The American mom who took refuge
with her two children in an American consulate in Saudi Arabia was on her
way home to California last night - but it was not clear whether the kids
were allowed to leave with her.
"She is coming home," Debbie Dornier,
the mother of 24-year-old Sarah Saga, told The Post.
Dornier would not discuss the fate
of her grandson, Ibrahim, 5, and granddaughter, Hanin, 3, saying only,
"I'm really upset, and Sarah is really upset about the way she had to do
it [leave Saudi Arabia].
"I'm not allowed to talk about it."
Sarah had been living in Saudi Arabia
since she was kidnapped by her Saudi father - who was separated from Dornier
- when she went to visit him at age 5.
Dornier went to Saudi Arabia to
try to get Sarah back. But she left without her daughter after her ex-husband
warned her, "I will slit her throat, and you will never see her again."
Sarah never saw her mother again.
When Sarah was 17, her father arranged
a forced marriage between Sarah and a Saudi man, whom she said, "held her
prisoner in her house."
She managed to get in touch with
her mom three years ago and eventually decided to try to escape with the
kids.
Ten days ago, she took the kids
and fled into the consulate in Jeddah.
The Saudis said she could leave
but the kids would have to stay behind.
A Marine who answered the phone
at the consulate last night confirmed Sarah was no longer living there,
but said he did not know if she was able to take her children with her.
