French Wife and Five Children Freed After 12 Years of Abuse in Remote Pakistan

Fri Jul 10 2026 16:38:46 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)

A man arrested in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is accused of imprisoning his wife and children for 12 years, sparing them from repeated abuse.

In a shocking case of domestic violence, a Pakistani man was arrested for holding his French wife, Sylvie Yasmina, and her five children captive at home for twelve years. Yasmina alleges daily physical and psychological abuse, with her children denied education and social contact. Police railed the family’s cramped living conditions in Bara, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, finding bruises and signs of neglect. After the raid, the family was taken to a women’s shelter in Peshawar and is planning to return to France. The case highlights issues of cross‑border domestic abuse and the plight of refugees living abroad.

Case Background

Police in Pakistan arrested a man who allegedly held his wife and five children captive at home for more than a decade. He reportedly abused the family physically and mentally on a daily basis.

The Raid

The family lived in a cramped, dilapidated room in Bara, a remote town in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where the children were denied schooling and the wife’s contact with the outside world.

Aftermath

Following the raid, the wife and children were moved to a women’s shelter in Peshawar and are planning to return to France.

Key Details

The husband, a Pakistani national, is believed to have lived illegally in Australia when he met the French family and moved to Pakistan in 2014. The family has not had communication with outsiders since then, and their two older children missed school while the younger were never enrolled.