Skokie man gets 18 months for international parental kidnapping

A north suburban man has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for taking his children out of the country without their mother’s knowledge last year.

Skokie resident Murtaza Ali, 46, was sentenced Thursday by U.S. District Judge Samuel Der-Yeghiayan, according to FBI spokesman Garrett Croon. He had pleaded guilty to a international parental kidnapping charge in April, court records show.

Ali took his three minor children on a flight to Istanbul on May 2, 2015, prosecutors said The children’s mother did not know about the trip or give permission for the children to travel abroad.

She realized they were missing when Ali and the children didn’t show up to pick her up from a social gathering, authorities said. Once she made it home, the house was a mess, and their luggage and passports were missing.

Ali, a Pakistani national, called the children’s mother from Turkey and said he planned to take them to Karachi, Pakistan, with him, authorities claim.

He was arrested at O’Hare International Airport when he returned with the children on May 6, 2015, authorities said.