SAUDI ARABIA

Saudi father reunites with abducted son after 20 years

February 18, 2020
The joy of both, Saudi Ali Al-Khineizi, the father, and son Musa, at being reunited after 20 years following a DNA test match is evident in this picture.
The joy of both, Saudi Ali Al-Khineizi, the father, and son Musa, at being reunited after 20 years following a DNA test match is evident in this picture.

RIYADH – An emotional scene of a father reuniting with his kidnapped son after 20 years with an heart-touching hug went viral in social media while capturing the family’s moment of joy.

It also brought about an end to the 20 years saga of a family’s yearning and misery of losing their son on birth and the scheming intrigue by another woman who stole the baby.

Saudi citizen Ali Al-Khineizi said that his son “Musa” was abducted in 1996 only three hours after his wife had given birth at the Maternity and Children’s Hospital in Dammam, in the eastern region of the Kingdom.

The boy, who was kidnapped 20 years ago, was on Tuesday reunited with his biological family following DNA tests results, ordered by authorities, proved a match. The DNA test results on Monday showed a total match between the son (Musa) and his father and mother.

The father, while exuberantly welcoming Musa into his bosom after a bitter separation, said, “This is a time of jubilation for the whole Al-Khineizi family. We are preparing to receive our son with flowers and candles.”

The family was in a flutter for a whole week, as they had to wait for seven days for the DNA results. The final results showed that the genetic characteristics of the son matched that of the parents.

In earlier statements to Alarabiya.net, Ali likened the past years as dismal as the parents endured a slow death daily at the lack of knowledge of their kidnapped son’s fate.

“It was like charcoals burning my heart after my son was stolen, and his mother cried continuously every night, repeatedly asking only one question — that was about her son’s whereabouts,” he said.

Musa’s case was one of two kidnappings from the hospital by the same woman that shook the Kingdom in the mid-1990s, the other a boy from a different mother on 1999. Following the woman’s arrest last Wednesday, the story gained traction with the Saudi public as new speculations and a possible happy ending for a family made the rounds.

Police investigations into the babies’ disappearance failed to yield results until suspicions about the identity of the two boys, who are now in their twenties, rose after a the Saudi woman tried to apply for identification cards for them.

The police said, “The woman was apprehended after she applied for identification cards for the two boys, now in their twenties, based on suspicious data.

In another dimension to the story, it is reported that Al-Khineizi’s mother allowed a strange woman to enter her hospital room after she claimed she was taking the boy to give him a bath, the boy’s biological brother, Mohammed Al-Khineizi, told Al Arabiya.

Al-Khineizi said his family has spent the last 20 years looking for Musa, whose father Ali even offered up multiple rewards over the years for his safe return.

The woman, now in her 50s, told officials that she found two abandoned babies around 20 years ago and decided to raise them herself. She also reportedly told the children that they were born out of wedlock. She has been arrested and is currently under investigation by the police.


February 18, 2020
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