Calgary police appeal to Iraqi community for help to find missing girl

Police seek help with possible abduction Calgary police need the public’s help to learn more about what happened to a local girl. Camilla Di Giuseppe reports.

Calgary police are hoping members of the local Iraqi community can provide information to find a 12-year-old girl believed to be wrongfully with her father’s family overseas.

In June 2018, Zahraa Al Aazawi, 11, travelled from Calgary to Egypt with her father.

She was supposed to return to Canada in September, according to a travel agreement between her parents.

The girl has had limited contact with her mother since then, but has not returned to Calgary as agreed.

Her father, Ali Al Aazawi, 38, returned to Canada on April 4 and was arrested at the Toronto airport. He is charged with one count of parental abduction and is being transferred from Toronto to Calgary.

Investigators now believe Zahraa is in Iraq, possibly with her father’s family, and are asking for the public’s help, specifically from members of the Calgary Iraqi community, so she can be reunited with her mother.

Calgary police Sgt. Curtis McMurphy said the father and his family members are being uncooperative with investigators.

“Any community is tight-knit and people have friends, they have family overseas and we’re hoping that somebody, possibly, might know where Zahraa is and may have some information,” he said.

“No information is too small. We do have a lot of hope that people in the Iraqi community can help us locate her.”

Anyone with information is asked to call police at 403-266-1234 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.