Saudi sisters on run from consular staff after renouncing Muslim faith were ‘kidnapped at Hong Kong airport’
- Pair were bound for Australia after fleeing family during holiday to Sri Lanka, but were allegedly apprehended by Saudi consular staff at Hong Kong airport
- Cathay Pacific cancelled their connecting flight to Melbourne
Police are looking into allegations that two sisters on the run from Saudi Arabia and their family were briefly kidnapped at Hong Kong airport before ending up stuck and hiding in the city without valid passports.
The pair, who renounced their Muslim faith, fled to Hong Kong almost six months ago, midway through a family holiday in Sri Lanka. Their final destination was meant to be Australia, but they were apprehended at Hong Kong International Airport by staff from the Saudi consulate, according to their lawyer.
On arrival at the airport on September 6, the women discovered their tickets for their connecting flight to Melbourne had been cancelled, and Saudi consular staff, including the consul general, allegedly attempted to place them on a flight to Riyadh.
Vidler & Co Solicitors, representing the sisters, said a Sri Lankan Airlines employee even briefly snatched their passports.
Their escape prompted a pursuit by their father and uncle – high-ranking officials in Saudi Arabia – who flew to Hong Kong to file a missing persons report, multiple sources told the Post.
Hong Kong police eventually tracked down the women, at which point the two filed a report with the force recounting their ordeal at the airport, their lawyers said.
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The supposedly brief stopover in the city has now turned into one which has left them stranded and fearing for their safety. The sisters have moved 13 times in the past five months, their lawyers said.
The women’s passports have been invalidated, but they have only been given permission to stay in Hong Kong until next Thursday, according to their solicitors.
Human rights lawyer Michael Vidler said the pair had filed an application for an emergency visa to a third country.
“We would like to see determination from this third country by that day,” Vidler said.
The sisters said in a joint statement on Thursday: “We fled our home to ensure our safety. We hope that we can be given asylum in a country which recognises women’s rights and treats them as equals. We dream of being in a safe place where we can be normal young women, free from violence and oppression.”
Their plight came to light after American news outlet CNN reported they had allegedly been physically abused back home by their father and brothers.
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The latest case saw the sisters run into trouble as soon as their flight touched down from Colombo. Vidler said the women followed two members of staff from Sri Lankan Airlines in the belief they would show them to the Cathay Pacific Airways check-in counter for their next flight. Instead they were taken to Emirates and given boarding passes for flights to Riyadh, the lawyer said. Their Cathay Pacific tickets were cancelled, he added.
Saudi consul general Omar Al Bunayann also appeared, according to Vidler, who cited closed-circuit television footage. He said the consul general told them they had to go to Dubai for a stamp before going to Australia.
A row ensued between the women and ground staff after the latter allegedly assaulted one of the sisters and snatched their passports. The travel documents were only returned when the sisters shouted for help.
Vidler said the women tried to book tickets to Australia with Qantas but they were not allowed to catch the flight despite having boarding passes, after an encounter with the vice-consul general. Their visas to the country were later cancelled.
Fearing for their safety, they fled the airport. Three days later the women received phone messages from someone posing as a police officer, who asked about their whereabouts.
A government source told the Post the women’s father and uncle had flown in shortly afterwards. The father is a prison official and their uncle works at the Saudi interior ministry, the Post has learned.
“Officers soon located the sisters and they were safe and sound,” a police source said.
“We have questioned the pair, who later reported to North Point police station that they had once been kidnapped ... at the airport soon after they landed on Hong Kong soil.”
Crime squads from the New Territories South region, which is in charge of airport security, were investigating the allegations but would not disclose any further information.
A police spokesman on Thursday confirmed that in early September the force received a report from two expatriate women classified as a “request for a police investigation”. In the same month officers received a missing persons report from a foreign male, he said.
The Post contacted the Saudi consul general for comment but was told he was not in his office.
A spokesman for Cathay said the airline cancelled the women’s tickets to Australia on the instruction of Sri Lankan Airlines.
Sri Lankan did not respond to the Post’s inquiries on Thursday, although it told CNN it had acted at the request of the Saudi consulate.
A spokesman for the Hong Kong Immigration Department said it would not comment on individual cases.
