BAHRAIN'S courts may have breached United Nations (UN) laws on human rights by freeing a father arrested for allegedly kidnapping his child during a tug-of-love

custody battle.

The verdict appeared to defy at least two UN conventions which the country has signed, said Bahrain Transparency Society (BTS) president Abdulnabi Al Ekri.

The Bahraini father was freed following a Sharia Court hearing at the Justice Ministry, Manama on July 9 despite failing to reveal his five-year-old daughter Sarah's whereabouts.

He had earlier been held at the Hoora Police Station for seven days after being arrested during a raid on his home, for failing to return Sarah to her mother Lecita Flores, who has the child's legal custody.

The man was brought before the judge the following day and given 72 hours to say where his daughter Sarah was, or remain in custody.

He refused to give details but was given another 72 hours.

However, the man was later released though he did not say where his child was. The judge said he did not have powers to keep him locked up.

Mr Al Ekri says children involved in custody cases should stay with their mother before adulthood and the father be granted access.

"This case shows that the judiciary must implement its own verdict," he said.

"The state is bragging that it has an independent judiciary and here is a test case for it.

"In case the local judiciary is unable or unwilling to do something, Bahrain is a signatory to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).

"I think Ms Flores should raise this issue with the Bahrain Human Rights Society (BHRS) to investigate a possible breach of UN regulations," he said.

The 42-year-old has not seen her daughter for nearly a month now and has only managed a brief telephone conversation with her.

The judge told Ms Flores she would have to file another criminal case against her ex-husband if she wanted him to be arrested and forced to return her daughter.

The Execution Court last month issued a warrant for the father's arrest after he was accused of breaching his visitation rights by failing to return Sarah.

It is the fourth time a judge has ordered the child be handed back to her, a mother who has been fighting a custody battle with the man since April 2004.

She was earlier granted custody of her child during a Sharia Court hearing in March.

Ms Flores won the case after her ex-husband was arrested for refusing to hand over Sarah - despite four court orders obliging him to do so.

However, he appealed against the custody verdict and the Sharia Court agreed he could take his daughter twice a week.In the latest, alleged kidnapping, the father, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had picked up Sarah with his family from Manama Social Centre on June 23 and was supposed to return her at 8pm the following day.

Ms Flores said he never showed up and then refused to return Sarah, following which she filed a kidnapping charge.

She first raised a case against her ex-husband in Kuwait, where the couple had met and married.

The Kuwait Sharia Court granted her full custody of her daughter after he fled to Bahrain with Sarah, telling Ms Flores he had divorced her and was keeping Sarah.

When she followed him to Bahrain in November 2004, she was told she had to file a case here as the Kuwaiti ruling did not apply in Bahrain.

Ms Flores' ex-husband had broken a court order in 2005 also and fled with the child to Qatar, where he has relatives. But he was persuaded to return several months later after the intervention of BHRS, which threatened him with a kidnapping charge. geoff@gdn.com.bh