Mother reunited with daughter snatched by prince
Published: April 5, 2006
A VICTORIAN woman has been reunited with her daughter who was snatched from Australia 14 years ago by her father, a Malaysian prince.
Jacqueline Pascarl-Gillespie is said to have met privately with her daughter Shahirah, 20, who flew into Melbourne over the weekend.
The move was confirmed by the Malaysian Prince Raja Bahrin, in an interview with News Limited papers today.
“It’s only natural that she wants to visit her mother,” the prince said of his daughter.
“She is a big girl now, going to be 21 … She wants to be with her mother, so what is there for me to say?”
The prince also said the couple’s son, Iddin, now aged 23, who also was smuggled out of the country in 1992, had not yet asked to see his mother.
“Let’s take one thing at a time … it’s up to the kids so let things take their course.”
Jacqueline married the prince in 1980, and they had two children who were born in Malaysia.
Jacqueline returned to Australia with the children after the prince married a second wife under Islamic law, but in 1992 he smuggled the children out of Australia during an access visit.
The case became one of the most high profile custody battles in Australia’s history and federal authorities tried unsuccessfully to return the children to Australia.
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