A woman is desperately seeking help in finding her son following the arrest of his father on charges of serial murder.
Lobna Yakout, a 33-year-old woman who fled Cairo in 2022 and now resides in the UK, has spoken out after her former husband was convicted of multiple murders in Egypt last August.
According to PEOPLE, Karim Selim tortured, killed, and sexually abused the corpses of three women in his Cairo residence between November 2023 and May 2024. He reportedly filmed the acts and built a soundproof room to carry out his crimes, Egyptian Streets reported.
Local media has disclosed that the 37-year-old’s victims were all sex workers. He also told officials that he had more victims but it wasn’t clear if those claims are being investigated, per Al-Ahram and The New Arab.
Selim and Yakout tied the knot in 2014 and lived together in Egypt with their son, Zayn, until their separation in 2020.
The mom-of-one revealed that she was not shocked that Selim was capable of disturbing crimes as she allegedly endured years of abuse while living with him, claiming: “He nearly killed me many times,” per PEOPLE.
After six years, Yakout had enough and left her husband by taking her son and moving into a new home in the Egyptian city. But despite this, Selim continued to threaten her.
In 2021, a year after they separated, the former couple met in what was supposed to be a temporary meeting between Selim and Zayn. Unfortunately, that was the last time she was her child, as Selim allegedly kidnapped him.
Recalling the last time she saw her son before the meeting, she says she told him: “If you’re taken from me, find me.”
She added: “That’s the last thing I said to him.”
is desperately searching for her son Zayn. Credit: GoFundMe
After receiving no news about her child and continuing to receive threats from her former lover, Yakout escaped to the UK. For the following two years, she didn’t hear from Selim until receiving a call in May from Egyptian police, telling her that her ex had been accused of murdering three women.
“I didn’t believe it. I thought he set it up because he just everything to find me … so I get to Egypt and he’d get me,” she said. “Me and my mum, we were shaken…it was madness.”
Even though her ex-husband is imprisoned, Yakout’s journey is far from over as she is desperately searching for her son, who was reportedly handed to Selim’s mother following his arrest.
The mother has taken to TikTok to share an emotional video, pleading with viewers to help spread the word about her child, whom she has not seen since 2021.
Watch the TikTok below:
“Whenever he [Selim] got locked up, he told the police that I was dead, so his mom took my son… It’s been seven months, I haven’t seen my son, I haven’t heard from my son, she’s kidnapped him,” Yakout said in the video.
She continued: “I filed all police papers… I have full custody, I have every single right. I cannot find this woman.”
The mom-of-one has set up a GoFundMe to raise money for her search efforts such as “living expenses, legal fees, and necessary security measures”.
In an update shared yesterday, Yakout wrote that the “lack of support from local authorities has been disheartening,” and shared that she’s “received death threats that have made it unsafe for me to continue working, further exacerbating my situation”.
“Despite these challenges, I remain steadfast in my determination to find Zayn and bring him home safely,” she added.
