DCS - Durham Couple Who Wanted To Adopt On Trial In Egypt

From my archive of press clippings:

Durham County Story


Durham Couple Who Wanted To Adopt On Trial In Egypt

By AP, MyNC, 2 weeks, 3 days ago

Updated: May. 14 4:39 am


CAIRO


A North Carolina couple, Iris Botros and Louis Andros, thought they were finally reaching their dream of having a child when they came to Botros' homeland, Egypt, to adopt twin orphans. Instead they found themselves in a cage in a courtroom, on trial for alleged child trafficking.

Read the whole article here.

Snippet(s):

"Botros and Andros, who live in Durham, N.C., also may have been caught up in an attempt by the Egyptian government to show it is cracking down on human trafficking after criticism from the United States."

"(T)he two traveled to Cairo in the fall and were put in touch with a Coptic Christian orphanage that was caring for two newborn orphans.

The orphanage gave them forged documents to say Botros had given birth to the children, and the couple donated $4,600 to the orphanage, Saleh said. In November, Botros and Andros brought the twins, whom they named Victoria and Alexander, back to their temporary home in a mostly Christian neighborhood of Cairo.

But when they tried to get American passports for the babies, a U.S. Embassy employee became suspicious of them, Saleh said. When asked by an embassy official, Botros admitted she wasn't the biological mother, the lawyer said."

"A second couple - Suzan Hagoulf, an American of Egyptian origin, and her Egyptian husband Medhat Metyas, who have been living in Egypt since 2003 - were also arrested in December.Hagoulf and Metyas adopted a newborn from the same orphanage almost a year ago, according to their lawyer, Naguib Gibrail. When they wanted to visit the U.S. in late 2008, they applied at the U.S. Embassy, where officials asked for a DNA test on the child. The couple were reluctant to present one, and the embassy notified Egyptian police, Gibrail said."

&

"The U.S. Embassy in Cairo would not comment on the case. According to the State Department, few Egyptian children are adopted by American citizens. In fiscal year 2008, the U.S. issued two Egyptian orphans immigrant visas, which must be obtained for internationally adopted children to enter the United States, according U.S. government figures."