American Carly Moyes stays in a hotel in Saudi Arabia
Saudi authorities released an American woman, Carly Morris, two days after her arrest on charges of “disturbing public order”.
Carly claims she is stranded in Saudi Arabia with her daughter, Tala. She told the BBC last month that her ex-husband had persuaded her to visit Saudi Arabia with her daughter in 2019 so that her parents could meet her granddaughter. She said that shortly after her arrival in Saudi Arabia, her husband completed the procedures for Tala to obtain Saudi citizenship without consulting her.
This means that according to Saudi Arabian male protection laws, a girl cannot leave the country without her permission. The daughter has American citizenship.
Carly had converted to Islam before marrying Tala’s father in the United States a few years ago while he was studying there, but they later divorced.
The American mother has been fighting a legal battle over custody of her daughter with her ex-husband for the past three years. All this time, mother and daughter are living in a Saudi hotel and she says she relies on her ex-husband for food or financial support.
She says she rarely leaves the hotel and notes that few people have seen her face since she started staying there.
She also claimed that at one point her ex-husband “kidnapped” her daughter after learning she had requested international assistance to bring Tala back to the United States, and her husband denied this allegation when the matter was brought before a court. Saudi.
The judge decided to return Tala to her mother, but told her she could not leave the city where she lived in Saudi Arabia.
The BBC reached out to her Saudi husband last month to comment on the case, but he did not respond.
Carly’s mother, Denise White, who lives in California, has repeatedly spoken out about her concerns over the plight of her daughter and granddaughter, and what she believes is a lack of help from US Embassy staff in Saudi Arabia. .
Denise was shocked to learn of her daughter’s recent arrest following her public requests for help in media reports and on Twitter.
The mother spoke to her daughter on Wednesday and told her that on Monday she was called to a police station in the Saudi city of Buraidah, about 320 kilometers northwest of the capital Riyadh, over a problem with her identity card. ex husband. .
When she protested the subpoena on the grounds that it didn’t concern her, police said she had to attend a meeting there because her daughter was on paper.
About an hour after arriving at the police station, her ex-husband walked in and spoke to the police. Soon after, officials told Carly that she was under arrest.
The mother said her daughter told her that while she was in prison her hands and feet were bound. Carly did not know the reason for her arrest or when she would be released.
After her release, Carly told her mother early Wednesday morning that she had met Tala, who was temporarily placed in the care of her ex-husband.
The mother said her daughter’s joy of getting out of prison vanished because of what she found when she returned to her hotel room, where she didn’t find the little food in the refrigerator. Tala’s clothes also disappeared and there were no clothes to wear.
Carly also told her mother that a mysterious security camera outside her door, the only one in the hotel lobby, was missing. Carly thinks someone thought she and Tala wouldn’t be back for long.
