RABAT, Sep 05, 2009 (AFP) - Morocco will ask Norwegian authorities to probe the "illegal" departure of the children of former Olympic athletics champion Khalid Skah to live in Norway with their mother, officials said Friday.
Moroccan judicial authorities decided Friday to request their Norwegian counterparts look into what they had concluded was the "illegal exit" of Skah's two children from Morocco, the Moroccan foreign ministry said in a statement.
In particular Morocco wants Norway to investigate the police and immigration attache at its embassy in Rabat, Stein Haugen, for "actions incompatible with his status and contrary to the obligations set in the Vienna convention on diplomatic relations."
"The Kingdom of Morocco cannot but regret the direct implication of Norwegian diplomats" in the "exfiltration" of the children, said the statement.
Skah and his supporters have said the children, Selma, 16, and Tarik, 13, were abducted on July 19 by Norwegian diplomats.
Skah's former wife, Anne Cecilie Hopstock, a Norwegian, is the mother of the children. She left her husband in 2007 and had been demanding custody of the children who are now in Norway.
The Norwegian government has denied any involvement in the events surrounding the children, who have dual nationality.
Skah has offered 500,000 dollars to whoever brings his children back to Morocco.
According to Skah, Tarik and Selma had lived in Rabat since 2006 and their mother left the north African country the following year to return to Norway.
She has since filed charges against her former husband for kidnapping, violence and threats.
mc/rl/ch
Copyright AFP 2009.
