Dad of snatched Leeds girl, 6, back in jail

Tamer Salama, 35, has already been in custody for 21 months but was due to be released from prison in Nottingham early this week before a further six-month term was imposed at London’s High Court.

Naomi Button, mother of six-year-old Elsa, began proceedings after the child was moved to her paternal grandmother’s care during a family holiday in Egypt in December 2011.

Ms Button, a 39-year-old leadership consultant from Leeds, has been struggling to recover her daughter ever since, said Mr Justice Holman.

Jailing Salama for contempt, the judge said that the teacher had admitted refusing to obey court orders, imposed in July, which required him to reveal Elsa’s whereabouts and bring about her return to this country.

He described Salama’s evidence as “shifty, evasive and plainly dishonest” and said it was quite clear he was very bitter about Ms Button and the English legal system.

“I am left in no doubt at all that the father knows a great deal more of the current whereabouts and circumstances of his child than he is willing to reveal.

“I am also in no doubt that, if he chose to do so, he could send instructions to Egypt requiring whoever it is who is caring for the child, to now cause her return to England.

“He has not made the slightest attempt to do so.”

Salama, from Southampton, has maintained that he is unable to comply with the court orders because his family has closed ranks against him and he only has very limited phone contact with a brother