Police in Calgary are calling on the local Iraqi community to come forward with any information on the whereabouts of a girl who is believed to have been abducted by her father.
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Zahraa Al Aazawi, 12, travelled from Calgary to Egypt in June 2018 for a summer holiday with her father, but did not return home at the agreed date of Sept. 5 and has not been in contact with her mother since.
Zahraa’s father, 38-year-old Ali Al Aazawi, returned to Canada last week and was arrested at the airport in Toronto. He has been charged with one count of parental abduction.
Sgt. Curtis McMurphy with the Calgary police’s domestic conflict unit said it’s believed Zahraa is in Iraq with her father’s family.
“We do have a lot of hope that people within the Iraqi community can help us locate her,” he told reporters on Wednesday.“Anybody that has any kind of information as to possibly where she is…would help so we can contact the proper authorities so we can start working on trying to get Zahraa back with her mother.”
McMurphy said Al Aazawi has not been co-operative in the investigation to this point. He could face a maximum of three years in prison if convicted of parental abduction.
None of the charges against Ali Al Aazawi have been proven in court.
Anyone with information on the case is asked to call Calgary police at 403-266-1234 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.
