Ms Mary Banotti MEP has asked the Jordanian royal family to help an Irish mother get back her son, who was abducted and taken to Jordan by her estranged husband. Ms Banotti has written to Queen Noor of Jordan to get her to help Ms Kathleen Al Oballi (37) - nee O'Callaghan from north Cork - retrieve her six-year-old son, Ahmed, abducted by her husband, Khamis.
"We got a very cordial reply from Queen Noor and we've since written back again giving more details on where we believe Ahmed is. We're really dependent on the goodwill of the Jordanian government because they haven't signed the Hague Convention.
"But we enjoy good relations with Jordan and we have a very strong case so I would be very hopeful," said Ms Banotti, who is the European Parliament President's Mediator in Transnational Abductions.
Ms Al Oballi e O'Callaghan from North Cork hasn't seen Ahmed since his father abducted him on March 2nd - the day she was discharged from a hospital in Luton after being attacked by a man who threw acid in her face.
"It's over six months since I've seen Ahmed - I really miss him - it's the first time I've ever been without him. It's very distressing - all I want is to get him back," said Ms Al Oballi who met and married her husband in England in 1986.
Ms Al Oballi left him in January 1997 when he said he was taking Ahmed with him to Jordan. She brought Ahmed to Ireland and got a court order granting her custody of the child.
She returned to England later last year when a British court upheld the custody ruling but said her husband should be given access to the boy. "Ahmed was really happy but we had to return to England because of the court order," she said.
Mr Al Oballi then took Ahmed to Jordan without her permission. British police can do nothing until her husband re-enters the UK, she explained. None the less, she is hopeful that the Department of Foreign Affairs will be able to help.
"I have had no contact with Ahmed since he left - it seems like a lifetime. I want my son back and hopefully I will get him back, but when I don't know," Ms O'Callaghan Al Oballi said.