Japanese woman stopped at airport while leaving country with daughters

Japanese national Nakano Eriko, who is in a legal battle with her Bangladeshi ex-husband over the custody of their two daughters, was stopped at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport while leaving the country with the girls.

Immigration police prevented them from boarding a Singapore-bound flight that left the airport at 12.30am on Saturday (24 December), an Airport Armed Police Battalion official told The Business Standard. 

Talking to TBS the father of the children, Imran Sharif, said the apex court and a family court here in Bangladesh, in separate orders, barred both of them from taking the children abroad. 

But he came to know that Erico was leaving the country with their daughters tonight and reported the matter to the airport immigration authorities.

Imran Sharif also said that his former Japanese wife forged passport and other travel documents to flee the country. 

"She was planning to go back to Japan transiting through Singapore and booked three tickets on Singapore airlines," Sharif added.

Earlier, in June, the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court dismissed three separate petitions including a court of contempt filed by both Japanese citizen Nakano Eriko and Bangladesh-born US citizen Imran Sharif regarding their two children.

Japanese mother Eriko also sought permission in a different petition to the top court to travel to Japan with her two children ahead of school's ongoing summer vacation.