[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 100 (Thursday, July 23, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Page S8887]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            THE ZAAZHOA CASE

  Mr. JEFFORDS. Mr. President, I rise today to share some great news 
and to give thanks to the Members who helped me with respect to this 
very emotional situation that we have dealt with. I want to share the 
great news that three young Vermont girls who were abducted to Egypt 
are now back. I want to thank 56 of my colleagues for their support in 
this case for signing a letter to urge their return to Vermont. I also 
want to thank the Egyptian and American Governments for their 
invaluable assistance.
  Last October, anticipating a Vermont court order giving his wife sole 
custody of their three girls, Michael Zaazhoa took Sarah, Maryam and 
Leila under falsified passports and fled to Egypt. Lamis Zaazhoa began 
the frantic search for her girls, ages 3, 5 and 6, which took 9 months, 
and culminated in a joyful reunion at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo this 
past Friday.
  Lamis listened to the wise counsel of her family and decided to go 
the long, anxious route of petitioning the Egyptian courts for sole 
custody of her children under Egyptian law and getting an Egyptian 
court order for the return of her girls. The Vermont delegation quickly 
swung into action in support of her efforts, enlisting the help of the 
U.S. Embassy in Cairo and the Egyptian Embassy in Washington.
  After the Egyptian courts ruled squarely in Lamis's favor, I walked 
around the Senate floor with a letter from Senator Leahy and me to 
President Mubarak of Egypt, asking for his support. Fifty-five of my 
Colleagues signed this letter. I am deeply appreciative of my 
Colleagues help, which I consider pivotal to the success of our 
efforts. And I am very grateful to the Egyptian Embassy and Egyptian 
Government for its help in ensuring that Egyptian law was enforced and 
the girls were returned to their mother. The staff of the American 
Embassy was there for us all along, and arranged the swift return to 
the United States of Lamis and her girls once they were reunited.
  I wish I could have invited all of my colleagues to the wonderful 
meeting Senator Leahy and I had with these three sweet girls yesterday! 
Their beautiful smiles and the joy on Lamis's face deeply touched the 
hearts of all those present. In difficult situations like these, we 
rely on the good offices of our Government, and the cooperation of our 
friends in foreign governments. And yesterday we saw with our own eyes 
the beautiful fruits of those efforts!
  This is an unusual result. Many of these cases occur, but very, very 
few are reconciled the way this was. I thank Jeff Munger of my staff in 
Vermont, whose sister brought to his attention the plight of the 
children and spearheaded the results that we got. So, again, I thank 
all the Members for their helpfulness in getting the three little girls 
back to Vermont.
  I thank the Chair.

                          ____________________