practices. and one of them would be adherence to the hague convention or to recognize u.s. court orders. and we ll continue to urge them to do that. but i don t think we re going to just say, you know, we re through with you if you don t do this one thing because we have many things that we want them to do. this is one of them. reporter: michael shannon has heard that same explanation for more than a decade. and all that time he has been fighting the court case back in maryland, michael s sons have been growing up here. 12 long years. 12 years not even seeing a single photograph. but that is about to change. it s 7:05 a.m. sunday morning, the beginning of the school week in cairo. and two boys, appearing to be about 16 and 12, are walking out of the apartment building where nermeen khalifa lives with michael shannon s two sons. khalifa has refused to give cnn
to find the mother who kidnapped her own children and ask her why. hello? hi, nermeen. this is drew griffin with cnn. reporter: it is a story very different than the tale being told in the united states. he basically, and according to the courts, feels that you ve kidnapped these children and have held them captive here for 12 years. i d like to explain my voint of vi point of view. okay. reporter: when we come back, the woman wanted for kidnapping insists she is the real victim. of course, i had no idea what it was. i felt like my feet were going to sleep. it progressed from there to burning like i was walking on hot coals to like a thousand bees that were just stinging my feet. i have a great relationship with my doctor.
get a photo for ten years from the government. the u.s. embassy, office of children s issues, state department, they all live down the street. just any photo. if these are my sons, this is the first time i ve seen them in 11 years. reporter: as we hang up, michael shannon is still not 100% sure. later, nermeen khalifa sent an e-mail to cnn claiming the boys in the images are not her sons, but she refused to give us any pictures. in a phone call to a cnn producer she threatened to sue if these pictures we took were broadcast. when asked why she would consider a lawsuit if the photos were not of her sons, she didn t answer. through it all, michael shannon cannot pull himself away. that s definitely not an
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how that could have happened, you re not alone. the state department told cnn it doesn t interfere in deportation cases, that is up to the u.s. immigration service. and no one from immigration has returned multiple phone calls and e-mails, asking for comment. michael shannon hired the lawyer who arguably knows more about international child abduction than anyone in the country, who believes the u.s. government not only has done nothing to help, it may have expedited afaf khalifa s deportation. these are american boys, american citizens. they re not entitled to be egyptian citizens. and they ve been held in a foreign country for 12 years, and the government unfortunately has done nothing about it. reporter: michael shannon turned to an egyptian court for help hiring an egyptian attorney to help him enforce his u.s. custody rights. the case was filed in 2002. it was postponed two years,