Reunite me with son taken by my serial killer ex, mum pleads

A mother is pleading to be reunited with her 10-year-old son who she has not seen in four years.

Lobna Yakout, who was raised in Northern Ireland, told BBC News NI her son Zayn was taken by her ex-husband while she was living in Egypt.

Her former husband, Karim Selim, 37, has since been convicted of the murder and torture of three women in Cairo, last year, according to local media reports. He has been sentenced to death.

The BBC has seen an Egyptian court document, from July, showing that Lobna has custody of Zayn. As far as Lobna is aware, this is still the legal position.

Lobna's MP, Sinn Féin's John Finucane, who has been helping her, said it was a "distressing" situation.

She has not seen Zayn since 2021, but said she had made numerous attempts to reunite with him.

Her son was born in Michigan, in the US, but the family moved to Egypt when he was two. She also brought Zayn on a visit to Belfast when he was one.

Lobna said she was in an abusive marriage with Selim for more than seven years and that she feared for her life before leaving him in 2020.

"It got to a point where I just couldn't stay," she told BBC News NI.

"I took my son and left. He didn't contact us for six months, then he wanted us back."

However, in 2021, at a short meeting with his father in Egypt, she said Zayn was taken away from her and she has not seen him since.

"I have been fighting to see him," she said.

Lobna told the BBC that her ex tried to kill her and sent threatening messages.

It was then that she fled back to Belfast.

"No-one believed that he would try to kill me. I knew deep down he was going to kill me," she said.

When the teacher came back to Belfast she trained in aesthetics to make money for her legal battle.

"I didn't want to be a teacher and have one location where I could be found, so with aesthetics I can plan my location and clients," she said.

In May 2024, she was then told the shocking news that he been accused of killing three people.

Selim was convicted last August of the murders of three women in Egypt.

She told BBC News NI she was able to get a "forced divorce" - a Khula – where a wife initiates divorce proceedings – part of family law, which is based on Islamic principles, in November 2024.

Lobna understands that her son, who is also a US citizen, is in Egypt and was placed with her former mother-in-law following Karim's arrest.

Lobna said living without her son had been very difficult and she felt "numb".

She has moved back to Egypt and has hired a lawyer to try to get Zayn returned to her custody, but has been highly critical of initial Egyptian police efforts to get her son back.

Lobna has also taken to social media channels, like TikTok, where her videos have been getting millions of views.

Lobna said her attempts at communication with her former in-laws have not been successful.

She said she continued to message her mother-in-law on the only numbers she has for her about her son, but does not get a reply, adding that the number has now blocked her.

"As a soon as I wake up I text my son: 'I miss you, love you, hope you're ok.'

"I need my son back – I want him back. He is 10 now.

"He is going to have social media. Someone must have seen him."

The BBC has spoken to Zayn's paternal grandmother, who disputes Lobna's account of the situation and said she was originally given custody after his father's arrest and said this was because Lobna was not considered a fit person to look after her son.

Due to the four years that Lobna has not been in her son's life, she believes Lobna effectively abandoned her son.

She disputes Lobna's custody claim and said she is acting in his best interests and is worried about the impact of the publicity on him.

Lobna's lawyer, Shady Abdellatif Abdel Rahman, specialises in family law.

"Her ex-husband is a serial killer and he is still in the courts and there is a decision to kill him," he told BBC News NI.

He said the Prosecutor General in Egypt had ruled that Zayn should be given back to Lobna, but added "we need to know the location of the boy".

He has a meeting with the Assistant Minister of Justice for International Cooperation planned and is hopeful this will help to find Zayn and "bring him to his mother".

"Until now I have helped 80 kids to get back to their mothers around the world."

He hopes Zayn will be 81.

Lobna's other lawyer, Ashraf Farahat, who she hired in autumn 2024, has also been working on her behalf.

"The husband's mother keeps changing her residence address, which makes it difficult to enforce the legal order," he told BBC News NI in December.

He said "we are taking this to the next level of pursuing a legal order against the husband's mother, we are hoping this will force her to surrender the child".

Zayn's grandmother strenuously denies the allegations that she has changed her residence address.

Lobna believes she will see Zayn again but said she is going public because if she does not, "when he grows up he will know that his mother loves him and has been looking for him".

"I will never stop looking for you until the day that I die."

Belfast North MP Sinn Féin's John Finucane has been in contact with UK government ministers to ask what assistance they can provide to Lobna and her family to help bring her son home.

In a letter, seen by BBC News NI, Finucane was told by the Middle East and North Africa Minister Hamish Falconer that consular officials were in touch with her and the US Embassy and the British Embassy had registered its concern with the Egyptian foreign ministry.

A British Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office spokesperson told the BBC it had "provided support to a British woman in Egypt".

BBC News NI understands that the US embassy has done a welfare check on Zayn.

When BBC News NI contacted the US State Department a spokeswoman said: "One of the highest priorities of the US Department of State is the safety and welfare of US citizens overseas, and we are dedicated to the safety and welfare of children - some of our most vulnerable citizens. Due to privacy considerations, we have no further comment."

The BBC has also attempted to contact the Egyptian Interior Ministry and police.

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