The U.S. Embassy in Athens on Thursday, honored eleven Greek police (EL.AS) officers involved in an international investigation. The investigation led to the whereabouts of three southern California children missing in a well-documented 2008 parent abduction case.
All three of the children were located in May 2010 in the Netherlands following what U.S. Ambassador to Greece Daniel B. Smith, called an “exhaustive investigation” by Greek police and in cooperation with US. and Dutch law enforcement. Two Syrian-Armenian brothers, John and George Silah, were arrested for abducting their children, two by the one man and one by the other.
During a brief ceremony at his official residence, Smith presented the eleven Greek officers with certificates of appreciation awarded by the FBI director, as the U.S. federal law enforcement agency had featured the case on its parental kidnapping database. The U.S. envoy emphasized that parental abductions are a tragedy for both the kidnapped children and the parent and family “left behind”.
The U.S. envoy also read out a letter by the mother of two of the childre expressing her appreciation of the efforts by EL.AS.
In July 2008, John Silah failed to return his son, 13-year-old Greg, to his ex-wife, who retained custody. George Silah failed to return his two sons, Alex and Zaven, 15 and 12, to his ex-wife at the end of a summer visitation (photo). All three Silah children resided in southern California.
(source: ana-mpa)
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