Al Jazeera correspondent wins temporary custody of daughter

AMMAN — One day after being released from detention over a child custody battle, Al Jazeera correspondent in Amman Rula Amin on Wednesday said she won the temporary custody of her daughter.

“The minute I was freed I submitted an immediate custody request and won it temporarily at the Sharia Court,” Amin told The Jordan Times.

She added that now she has to follow up on the case to gain “custody of [her] daughter as stipulated in the law”.

The 48-year-old veteran journalist, who currently works for Al Jazeera English Channel, was arrested on Monday and sent to Jweideh Women’s Correctional and Rehabilitation Centre for refusing to give up custody of her five-year-old daughter Dina.

Amin was released on Tuesday by the Sharia Appeals Court, which had ordered her arrest, “based on new court proceedings”, her lawyer, Mohammad Abu Halimeh told The Jordan Times this week.

“The day I was arrested, the Sharia judge gave me an ultimatum: either to hand my daughter over to my ex-husband or go to prison, and I chose prison,” Amin said.

The journalist, who also worked for CNN, said she decided to leave her job in Lebanon and be near her daughter in Amman.

Amin’s ex-husband Mohammad Ajlouni said he will take the necessary measures that will be of the utmost benefit for their daughter.

“I have sent people to talk with my ex-wife to reach a settlement that would benefit my daughter; regardless of what they decide I am ready to accept it,” Ajlouni told The Jordan Times.

Amin’s lawyer claimed that the “proceedings of the Sharia Appeals Court, which led to the ruling ordering Amin to turn over her daughter to her ex-husband or face imprisonment until she complies were wrong”.

“A few months ago, the Sharia Appeals Court granted my client immediate custody of her child, then reversed the decision on March 15, granting custody to the father,” Abu Halimeh said.

He added that the court issued a notification ordering Amin to hand over the child to her father within seven days of the date, “but my client was arrested the following day”.

“The authorities did not wait for the seven-day period and immediately detained my client,” noted Abu Halimeh, who said Dina was kept in “a safe place until this ordeal is over”.

Amin divorced Ajlouni, who is founder and CEO of Arab Broadcast Services, almost three years ago, but signed papers agreeing on child custody and visitation rights, a close friend told The Jordan Times on Tuesday.

“The custody became an issue when Ajlouni took the child away from Amin almost a year ago and she was unable to see her daughter for eight months,” added the friend, who preferred anonymity.

Ajlouni, on the other hand, claimed that Amin was the one who deprived him of seeing his daughter for 17 months and “insisted on taking her to Lebanon, a country that I cannot enter”.

“My ex-wife wants to keep my daughter in Beirut, a city that I cannot go to due to my political stands and because my life would be in danger,” he said.

Amin’s detention sparked angry reactions from women’s rights activists and caused a media buzz, with many describing it as “an unusual and arbitrary [measure] to lock up a mother in prison over custody matters”.