British mother fights to win back son held in Qatar

MANAMA (Reuters) - A British mother whose young son is being held in Qatar by the family of her late husband based on the ruling of an Islamic court has said she will launch a legal appeal in a civil court to get him back.

Rebecca Jones, 43, has accused her ex-husband's family of "kidnapping" her 10-year-old son Adam on October 5 when they visited Qatar.

A Qatari Islamic court later gave custody of her son to the family of Adam's father, her late husband.

"It is a kidnap, they're still holding him. They don't let him go out, he's not been going to school for nearly three months now," Jones told Reuters in Bahrain by phone this week.

The family was not available for comment on the case.

Jones has remarried since the death of her Qatari husband in a motorcycle accident in 2005, which may have decreased her chances of getting a favourable ruling under sharia, or Islamic law, legal experts said.

Jones, who is originally from Sheffield and who is now based in Bahrain, said she intended to file an appeal to a civil Qatari court of appeal.

"My son has a British passport so I think he should be in the civil court," said Jones, adding that Adam also has a Qatari passport which her late husband obtained without her consent.

Jones said she is now allowed to visit her son twice a week for four hours. "I have to take police with me for my own protection," Jones said, adding she had received threatening phone calls and emails from the family.

"It's so sad, because for 10 years they had absolutely nothing to do with us. They don't want my son they just want my money," she said.

(Reporting by Frederik Richter in Bahrain; editing by Samia Nakhoul)