Malik Benhamza, International Parental Kidnapping, Massachusetts 2018

BOSTON — In a disturbing case of child abduction, a French national has been charged with international parental kidnapping in the Eastern District of Massachusetts.

Malik Benhamza, 33, who previously resided in East Boston, was charged with one count of international parental kidnapping in a federal complaint filed in the U.S. District Court in Boston. Benhamza is currently a fugitive and believed to be in Algiers, Algeria.

According to the charging documents, on February 2018, the Essex County Family and Probate Court granted Jerusha Hall sole legal custody of her and Benhamza’s three-year-old child, and granted Benhamza visitation rights during specific days and times. However, on July 1, 2018, Benhamza failed to return the child to Hall following a scheduled visit.

Instead, law enforcement traced Benhamza’s cell phone to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, where he boarded a flight to Houari Boumediene Airport in Algiers, Algeria, with the child. The child’s mother, Jerusha Hall, did not give permission for Benhamza to take the child out of the United States and has not seen or heard from the child since July 1, 2018.

The charge of international parental kidnapping carries a sentence of no greater than three years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a fine of $250,000. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

United States Attorney Andrew E. Lelling and Harold H. Shaw, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Field Division, made the announcement today. The Salem Police Department provided assistance with the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kenneth G. Shine of Lelling’s Major Crimes Unit is prosecuting the case.

The details contained in the charging documents are allegations. Benhamza is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.