TV Star Ayem Nour Sparks Diplomatic Tension Over Child Custody Battle

The long legal battle that Nour is waging against her ex-husband, Vincent Miclet, for the custody of their child is far from over. Her ex-partner does not digest her departure from Morocco on September 10 - which he describes as a "coup de force" - to return to France with their son Ayvin. "This exfiltration was carried out by his mother with the help of the French consulate general, despite numerous Moroccan court decisions, a consulate that believed it could issue a laissez-passer under problematic conditions, as it did not at all meet the requirements of the decree of December 30, 2004 relating to the powers of heads of consular posts in the matter of travel documents," notes Caroline Wasserman, the father of Ayvin’s lawyer, to Le Parisien.

She says she does not understand the behavior of the French consul, "he did the exact opposite of what he had written a few months earlier". Wasserman then points to a "great lightness on the part of the French consular services". "Why does the Quai d’Orsay through the consul allow himself to slap the Moroccan justice system like that?" she wonders. Responding by letter to correspondence that the lawyer sent to the French consulate in Marrakech, the consul explains that "this laissez-passer was issued to the child by our services, in consideration of his overriding interest in joining his usual residence, fixed at the home of his mother, in accordance with judgment no. 22/37 of the Paris Court of Appeal of February 15, 2022, the responsibility of the consular administration being to allow the execution of this judgment".

Stéphane Baumgarth says he is not "aware of a better agreement that would have been signed between the two parents resulting in a modification of the custody and residence conditions set by judgment no. 22/37 of the Paris Court of Appeal of February 15, 2022". He will add: "If your client believes that his parental rights have not been respected by the issuance of this laissez-passer, he can bring the matter before the competent family court judge" in France. According to the agreement reached by the former reality TV candidate and her ex-partner in the summer of 2022, their son Ayvin was to be schooled in Marrakech. But Ayem Nour had since gone back on this agreement, as she felt it was "obsolete".

This decision by the consular services violates the Franco-Moroccan convention in terms of justice, but also the international conventions on the rights of the child. "Vincent Miclet is asking the French authorities to summon his ex-partner and to implement the repatriation of his son, if we are to go by the 1980 and 1996 Hague Convention on the Rights of the Child, which require the immediate return of illegally displaced children," recalls Caroline Wassermann, adding "it’s a slap in the face for the Moroccan justice system". The latter has indeed opened an investigation against Ayem Nour for "child abduction" and a trial should take place in the coming months. Vincent Miclet wants his son "to be repatriated as soon as possible" and for the French authorities to fully realize the seriousness of the facts.