A Greek Cypriot woman who escaped from Syria by boat with her two children after her Syrian husband kept them prisoner for months, said yesterday she just wanted to put it all behind her.
“What’s done is done,” said Eftychia Christodoulou. “I would like to protect my children,” she said.
Christodoulou fled Syria with the children in a small boat in a dramatic escape organised by her Cypriot employer, a big businessman on the island.
She wed Syrian Ahmed Samer Anantani 11 years ago and the couple have two children, a seven-year-old and an eight-month old baby. During his years in Cyprus, her husband embraced the Cypriot way of life and became a Christian.
However, when the family went to Syria for Christmas with plans to return to Cyprus on January 3, he refused to let them leave. He said under Islamic law it was his right to decide to stay in Syria and to keep his family with him.
He took away his wife and children’s passports and put them on the border “stop list”.
Christodoulou managed after some days to get in touch with her employer and asked him for help. He travelled to Syria to try and convince her husband to return to Cyprus, even offering him a job, but without success.
In the end the businessman offered her husband $25,000 to set the family up in an apartment so that Christodoulou and the children could come and go freely to Cyprus. This offer was also turned down.
Before departing from Syria, the businessman gave Christodoulou a mobile phone to help her stay in touch with him and they planned an escape for her and the children. This was accomplished with the aid of another Syrian, who was paid $3,000.
When Christodoulou seized her chance to take the children away, they found a car waiting, which took them to a marina where a Syrian boat carrying her brother took them as far as Cypriot waters.
The businessman, had in the meantime, alerted the coastguard and the authorities that a boat would be approaching with four compatriots on board.
When the boat reached Cypriot waters, Christodoulou, her brother and her children were put on local boat and taken to Larnaca.
Christodoulou told a newspaper that she was still in fear of her husband showing up and that he was in possession of her passport and that of ther children, which the paper said were under guard round the clock.
The latest news Christodoulou had about her husband, according to the paper, was that he has re-embraced Islam after being influenced by his brother who lives in Saudi Arabia.
