Elyas, Muhammad and Ibrahim Sayed

From left are Elyas, Muhammad and Ibrahim Sayed. Their father, Majed Sayed, took them to Saudi Arabia, and their mother, Jessica Socling, is working with the federal State Department to get them back to the United States.

(Submitted)

WILLIAMSPORT — A female friend of the man wanted for international parental kidnapping for taking his three sons to Saudi Arabia was charged with making false statements to the FBI.

The FBI arrested Cori Mancuso, 22, on Tuesday as she was getting off a plane in New York City from Saudi Arabia. She also is charged with international parental kidnapping.

U.S. Middle District Magistrate Judge William I. Arbuckle III authorized her release on personal recognizance, provided she lives with her parents in Stroudsburg under electronic monitoring. Authorities have seized her passport.

Mancuso knew Majed Sayed was going to flee the country just before Thanksgiving with his sons instead of returning them to their mother Jessica Socling in the Jersey Shore area, according to FBI charging documents. The couple is separated and Sayed had the boys for an approved visit.

The false statement charge accuses Mancuso of lying when interviewed by the FBI in Williamsport Nov. 24 prior to her flying to Saudi Arabia to join Sayed, according to charging documents.

Mancuso said she did not know Sayed was planning to take Muhammad, 8, Ibrahim, 6, and Elyas, 4, to his native Saudi Arabia, according to prosecution statements made at her initial court appearance.

One of the unresolved issues in the case is how passports were obtained for children to leave the country because Socling had theirs.

Mancuso and Sayed considered themselves married due to an Islamic ceremony performed in Williamsport, but it is not recognized as legal in either the United States or Saudi Arabia, her Williamsport attorney Kyle Rude said.

Sayed still is legally married in the U.S. although Socling on Tuesday filed for divorce. She said she does not know her status of their marriage in Saudi Arabia.

Socling said Thursday her focus remains on getting back her children and she is not seeking revenge.

“If this arrest helps to convince him to see reason, if he decides to finally come to the table to negotiate, then that would be wonderful,” she said.

“It's a shame that this young woman's foolish choices led her to this end; that she made herself complicit in this crime, but as with my children she is being made to suffer for Majed's criminal behavior.”

Socling continues to work with the Saudi consulate in New York City on efforts to get her sons back. The lack of a treaty between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia on child custody matters has complicated her efforts.