Schoolgirl kept in a cage for 4 years!

Riyadh : A Welsh schoolgirl has been kept prisoner in a cage by her own father for more than four years, a court heard yesterday.

Amina Al-Jeffery was born in Swansea but then taken to Saudi Arabia, aged 16, because her father, an academic, did not agree with her lifestyle.

She has since been held as a prisoner at her father’s home in Jeddah, the family division of the High Court was told yesterday.

Mohammed Al Jeffery, her father, 62, works at the King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah.

A father of nine, Al Jeffery had moved to Swansea before Amina was born. His children were educated at British schools and universities.

Henry Setright, QC, representing Al Jeffery, said that her father had taken her to Saudi Arabia because he disapproved of her ‘relationships and conduct’.

Miss Al Jeffery, now 21, is kept in a cage when her father leaves the family home, the court was told.

Setright said her father believed that his daughter was ‘someone he has a duty to control’.

Al Jeffery had been ordered by the High Court to take his daughter to the British consulate in Jeddah on Monday so she could have a confidential discussion with her lawyers, but he refused to do this and until he received a guarantee from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office that his daughter would not be granted ‘sanctuary’.

Miss Al Jeffery had been allowed to attend an earlier meeting with consular staff at a hotel. She managed to slip a note under the table to a member of embassy staff expressing fears about her future, the court was told.

Marcus Scott-Manderson, QC, representing Al Jeffery said he ‘could not bring himself’ to obey the court’s order to attend the consulate. Anne-Marie Hutchinson, a British lawyer, said that she had spoken to Miss Al Jeffery when she briefly escaped from her father’s home.

Justice Holman said that the jurisdiction of the British courts was not clear because Miss Al Jeffery was now an adult with dual Saudi and UK citizenship.

He said: “We have to be careful about asserting the supremacy our cultural standards.”