Safia (Sophie) returned to her father, after 4 years of conflict

Safia (Sophie) scharbook

PARIS- President Nicolas Sarkozy announced Thursday that a (French) girl, aged 7, was given back to her father

• President Nicolas Sarkozy announced Thursday that a (French) girl, aged 7, was given back to her father, welcoming the end of a conflict between the French and the Algerian family of his deceased wife around custody of the child.
  
      “It is with great joy and great relief that I learn that little Sophie returned to her father, Jacques Scharbook after four years of separation,” said the French president.
  
      “I personally followed the case Sophie and the efforts of her father. I asked, since my election, that every thing should be done for a happy ending and that Jacques Scharbook succeed,” said Nicolas Sarkozy.
  
      The French president also welcomed the mobilization of the French diplomacy, under the authority of the Minister of Foreign and European Affairs, Bernard Kouchner and thanked the Algerian president Abdelaziz Bouteflika and his Interior Minister Yazid Zerhouni . “I know the role played by the Algerian authorities,” he said.
  
      “I wish to Sophie and Jacques Scharbook to fully enjoy the happiness of their reunion,” said Nicolas Sarkozy.
  
      Jacques Scharbook met his daughter Tuesday when French consular services took Sophie to him in southern France, where he lives.
  
      “It's hard to describe, but it's great,” he said from the department of Var (south) to the AFP by telephone. “I kissed her and she held me in her little arms, I have the heart shaken.
  
      The child spent three months in a centre for children in Oran, from the time she was found by the Algerian police and when she returned to her father. She learned French that she speaks perfectly,” said Mr. Scharbook, visibly moved.
  
      “She is in good health,” he added.
  
      Mr. Scharbook has not yet told her daughter he was her father. “She had a difficult history, and I prefer to leave time to do things,” said Scharbook.
  
      Installed in 1984 in Arzew, near Oran, Mr. Scharbook married Farah Belhoucine in March 2001 according to Muslim ritual and civil in September at La Seyne-sur-Mer In the south-eastern France, where Sophie was born. She has, according to her father, the only French nationality.
  
      After the death of her mother in 2005 in a road accident, the child had been assigned, the time of the funeral at her mothers’ family in Algeria in Oran, who refused to give her to her father.
  
      After three years of legal proceedings, the Supreme Court of Algeria said in February 2008 that Sophie should go with her father.
  
      But the child had been unfound until 15 March 2009, when she was placed in special institutions, according to the Algerian press.
  
      The Court of Appeal in Oran had rejected mid-June a proceeding initiated by an Algerian who presented himself as the “father” of the child.
  
      
  Ennaharonline / M. O.