LYNCHBURG, Va. – A federal court case involving an international child custody dispute is now playing out in Southwest Virginia, as Niloofar Ilbaki Aragh, an Iranian refugee living in Turkey, seeks the return of her 5-year-old daughter.
A petition filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia accuses Saeed Abedini, an Iranian-born U.S. citizen living in Turkey at the time, of wrongfully taking his daughter from her mother and bringing her to Lynchburg without permission.
The case was filed by Aragh, who alleges her daughter was taken from Turkey in January 2025 after she allowed the child to travel with Abedini to visit family in Istanbul.
Aragh’s attorneys, Devon Slovensky and Emily Rowe Sitzler, say the child has been separated from her mother for nearly 18 months.
“This has been heartbreaking for any mother to be separated from her child for a year and a half,” Slovensky said. “The child is now five and she hasn’t been able to hug her child in almost 18 months.”
According to Aragh’s attorneys, Abedini did not return the child to Turkey after the trip, leading Aragh to pursue legal action through the federal court system.
“The child has not voluntarily returned after a request to voluntarily return the child,” Slovensky said. “The next step is to take the case to federal court, and that is why we are in court.”
Abdini is an Iranian-born pastor who was jailed in Iran back in 2012 after being convicted by an Iranian court for “undermining national security” after trying to establish home-based Cristian churches in Iran during the early 2000s.
Abedini was freed from prison and returned to the U.S. in 2016.
The case is being handled under the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, an international treaty designed to address cases where children are taken across international borders during custody disputes.
“The Hague Convention works in the same way that states recognize each other’s custody orders,” Slovensky said.
Both the United States and Turkey are parties to the treaty, which allows parents to ask courts in participating countries to help facilitate the return of children in certain custody disputes.
Aragh remains in Turkey, where her attorneys say she has refugee status. They say she has had limited phone and video contact with her daughter but has not been able to see her in person.
“My client has had limited Zoom and phone call contact, but she’s not been able to hold her daughter,” Slovensky said. “She’s not been able to talk to her daughter in a way that she feels is private and secure.”
Aragh’s attorneys say the federal petition is one of the few options available that could allow her to reunite with her daughter in a timely manner.
They say Hague Convention cases are typically handled quickly, with decisions often being made within weeks after a petition is filed.
“Once the petition has been filed, then usually most of the time a decision is made by the U.S. District Court within six weeks,” Rowe Sitzler said.
Ten News reached out to Abedini for comment but did not receive a response.