Story By: Georgina Jadikovska, Sub-Editor: Marija Stojkoska, Agency: Newsflash
A dad who kidnapped his two children from their mother’s house in Germany and threatened to kill them has been arrested by police in Portugal while both children were found safe and sound and are waiting to be reunited with their mum.
Kristian, 11, and Amantia, 10, were reportedly kidnapped by their father, Lorenc Toska, 44, a German man of Albanian origin, and flown to the island of Tenerife in Spain from the German city of Hamburg in December 2020.
After eight months of separation the children will now be reunited with their mother, as Toska was arrested in the Portuguese city of Caldas da Rainha located about 80 kilometres (49 mi) north of the capital Lisbon on 24th August.
Bild reported that Toska had been in Tenerife with his children since around last Christmas after divorcing his wife and mother of the children, Enkelejda Sulaj, 37.
Enkelejda who was a German citizen originally from Albania and worked as a trained agricultural scientist, obtained custody of the children following the couple’s divorce which is why Toska decided to kidnap the children.
She said: “At the beginning of 2014, the court granted me the sole right to custody and determined the place of residence, but Lorenc still had the right to visit.”
However, her ex-partner just took the children with him and fled away to a then unknown location in December 2020.
Association SOS Missing stated: “At the end of January, little Amantia managed to talk to a friend of her mother’s. She told her they were on an island where everyone spoke Spanish. It was the first clue that led the investigation (in Tenerife).
“During the month of June, the father contacted the mother when he saw that she was busy looking for them and was posting images of their faces. That’s when the threats began.
“He told her that if she goes to the police, he will kill her, her family and the children. That she will not see them again.
“In one of those conversations, the father admitted to his ex-wife that they are indeed in Tenerife.”
The mother travelled to Tenerife from Germany to assist the authorities and put up posters around the south of Tenerife of her two missing children on 30th July.
In an interview with Bild, she said: “It tears my heart apart. But I keep looking, don’t give up. I have to put up a fight.”
Throughout the summer Toska and the two children had been sighted by police and even caught on security cameras on the island, after which he was summoned by a Spanish court calling for him to return his children to their mother in June.
By the end of June, the deadline given by the Spanish court for him to hand over the children had passed and as a result, he decided to leave Spain and fled to Portugal where he has now been detained.
Portuguese authorities said that both children are in good health and are expected to be reunited with their mother shortly.
