Skokie Man Indicted on International Kidnapping Charges

A Skokie man was indicted last week on charges he traveled with his three children to Turkey without their mother’s consent.

Murtaza Ali, 44, was charged with one count of international parental kidnapping by a federal grand jury. He was arrested on May 6 upon his return to O’Hare International Airport with the children and remains in federal custody.

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According to the children’s mother, Ali and the three children were scheduled to pick her up on May 2 following a social gathering in which she was in attendance. When the woman returned home after not being picked up, she found all passports and luggage missing, initiating an investigation by the Skokie Police Department.

Ali and the children boarded a Turkish Airlines flight at O’Hare Airport and arrived in Istanbul, Turkey that day, with plans to head to Pakistan - according to the indictment.

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Ali is scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday in front of U.S. District Judge Samuel Der-Yeghiayan.

International parental kidnapping carries a maximum sentence of three years in prison and a $250,000 fine.