Dad tried to sell children to their own mum

A 34-year-old father of two has been sentenced to eight years in prison after he kidnapped his six and seven-year-old sons, took them to Tunisia, and told their mother to pay him 170,000 francs ($182,000) if she wanted to get her children back.
Janine Schoch, 30, said she had told Swiss authorities on several occasions that she was afraid her husband Issam would follow up on threats to kidnap her children, newspaper Blick reports.
“I did everything in my power to prevent the abduction,” she told Blick. “I reported it to child protection authorities, but they thought I was a hysterical woman who wanted to discriminate against a poor foreigner."
But Schoch, who lives in Winterthur, near Zurich, had her worst fears realized on August 22nd 2010, when Issam [not his real name] took the children and flew them to his home country.
Eight days after the kidnapping, Schoch received an e-mail from Issam. He said she would be permitted to move in with him and be with her children again if she agreed to send him 170,000 francs.
“It was as if he wanted to sell me my own children,” she said.
In October 2010, Issam was arrested during a trip to Morocco and extradited to Switzerland.
"I could not continue living in Switzerland,” the 34-year-old Tunisian told the judge. “I was treated like a dirty dog by my wife, her family, and the migration authorities,” he explained, adding he was not serious about the money he requested. “I am a decent person,” Issam added.
On Thursday, he was jailed by a Wintherthur court on charges of kidnapping, attempted extortion and issuing threats.