An Egyptian grandmother lacks the ability to persuade her daughter to return her two young sons she took from Maryland to Cairo against their father's will, the grandmother's lawyer argued yesterday.
Attorney William C. Brennan Jr. said in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court that he is worried that the grandmother, Afaf Nassar Khalifa, is being unduly punished because of an unfounded belief that she could sway her daughter to return the children to their father.
Khalifa, 60, is serving a 10-year sentence at the Maryland Correctional Institution for Women in Jessup on her conviction for helping her daughter Nermeen Shannon, 34, abduct Adam Shannon, 6. Yesterday's court hearing, before a three-judge panel, was on a request by Brennan to reduce the sentence.
Adam's father, Millersville computer analyst Michael Shannon, had custody at the time that Nermeen Shannon and Khalifa took the boy on a plane to Cairo on Aug. 25, 2001. They also took his brother, Jason, 2, of whom Nermeen Shannon was then the custodial parent. The couple separated in 2000 and are divorced. Michael Shannon now has legal custody of both boys.
The judge in the case, Nancy Davis-Loomis, said in January that she would consider reducing the sentence if Adam is returned to his father. But Brennan said yesterday, "There's nothing in the court record -- indeed the evidence is all to the contrary -- that my client has any ability to effectuate the return of the children."
Nermeen Shannon is an "independent" woman -- so much so that she married Michael in 1996 against the wishes of her mother, Brennan argued.
Michael Shannon, who attended the hearing as a spectator, said afterward that he disagreed with Brennan's assessment. "Every time I called my kids [in Cairo], all I got was Afaf on the line. Afaf and [her husband] Osama have complete control. Nermeen, I believe, is the innocent bystander," he said.
It's not clear how much Davis-Loomis based her sentence -- if at all -- on state prosecutors' belief that the grandmother could help reunite the boys with their father.
Assistant State's Attorney Laura Kiessling said at the hearing that the sentence was appropriate for a "very serious crime." She said Khalifa played a significant role in the abduction and that witnesses had testified she "seemed to be in control" of directing the moving vans when the kids were taken.
"The punishment should fit the crime, and the crime is abducting a child," Kiessling said.
