Moscow dad appears in Spokane court for federal international kidnapping charge

SPOKANE, Wash. -- Aaron Aung, a Moscow dad who fled the country with his two-year-old daughter, made his first federal court appearance Friday morning.

Aung entered the court room in a yellow jail-issued jumpsuit where he told the judge he understood the charges filed against him.

Aung faces a federal charge of international parental kidnapping when he failed to bring his daughter to the Pullman Police Department for a custody exchange with the child's mother.

MORE: Moscow dad who took Pullman child to Mexico faces federal kidnapping charges

"These are the cases that we, our office, really prioritizes because it involves international issues and our close collaboration with Mexican authorities, the FBI and Customs and Border Protection. We also had great collaboration from the Pullman police and our local police officers who became aware of the victim child being missing," said Vanessa Waldref, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern district of Washington.

"From the get-go, we were able to harness all of our local and federal resources to really effectively identify where the child was located. And then move quickly on these federal charges."

The United States is also asking for Aung to be detained until trial.

There is a preliminary hearing as well as a motion for detention hearing scheduled for Thursday, August 8 at 1:30 p.m.

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