A Skokie man has been sentenced to 18 months in jail for flying his children out of the country last year without their mother’s consent or knowledge, according to FBI officials.
FBI Chicago Media Coordinator Garrett Croon said Murtaza Ali, 46, pleaded guilty to international parental kidnapping in April and was sentenced Thursday by U.S. District Judge Samuel Der-Yeghiayan.
According to court documents, Ali, a Pakistani national, boarded a flight to Istanbul with his three children on May 2, 2015.
Ali’s wife realized her husband and three children were missing after they failed to pick her up from a social gathering on May 2, the complaint states.
The complaint said she told authorities that when she got home, the house was a mess and her children’s and husband’s passports and luggage were gone. She reported Ali and their children missing to the Skokie Police Department, according to the complaint.
She told authorities that her husband called her from Turkey the next morning and told her he planned to take the children to Pakistan and that she should consider joining them, the complaint states.
The complaint says the children’s mother did not know about the trip and had not consented to Ali taking the children out of the country.
Ali was arrested at O’Hare International Airport upon his return to the U.S. on May 6, 2015, according to Croon.
Lee V. Gaines is a freelance reporter.