Man sees sons in Egypt after abduction by ex-wife

CAIRO, Jan. 17 (UPI) -- A U.S. man visited his two sons in Cairo during the weekend, the first time he had seen them since they were abducted by his ex-wife .

Colin Bower was granted full custody of his children in 2008 after his divorce from ex-wife Mirvat El Nady. Using fake Egyptian passports she kidnapped the boys in New York and brought them to Cairo, the Egyptian Bikya Masr news agency reported.

Egypt has no legal arrangement with the U.S. in matters of parental abduction, and it was six months of diplomatic negotiation, aided by U.S. Senator John Kerry, which provided Bower a chance to see his sons Noor, 7, and Ramsy, 9.

He called the 90-minute visit a "godsend." U.S. Embassy officials and his ex-wide were present to observe the visit.

Bower said he suspects his ex-wide and her family were protected by former president Mubarak's regime, allowing his sons to stay in Egypt with their mother. In 2009 he took legal action against the airline EgyptAir for their failure to notice his ex-wife and sons used false identification when they flew out of New York.