Siham Qandah, a Jordanian Christian widow, has won her fight to have her estranged Muslim brother removed as the legal guardian of her two children.

At a hearing on April 12, Judge Mahmud Zghl revoked the legal guardianship of Siham's brother, Abdullah al-Muhtadi, over her daughter Rawan, 16 and son Fadi, 15. He also ordered al-Muhtadi to repay misspent amounts taken from the children's trust fund. Advocacy group Middle East Concern reports that he has 30 days to appeal against the ruling at Amman's Al-Abdali Shari'ah Court. If he does not appeal, then a written verdict will be issued and a new custodian, proposed by Siham, will be appointed.

Siham Qandah told Compass Direct news agency: "I still can't believe it! I am so happy, I am just speechless. I can't even describe my emotions." She said she had already called her children from Amman, but could not wait to travel home and tell them in person.

When Siham's husband died while serving with the UN in Kosovo in 1994, a local Islamic court declared he had converted to Islam years earlier. According to Islamic law, this meant his minor children automatically became Muslims too. Siham and her family have consistently disputed the alleged conversion, but she nominated her brother (who converted to Islam as a teenager) to serve as their legal Muslim guardian so that they would not lose their army orphan benefits.

Al-Muhtadi then began to withdraw their monthly benefits and later withdrew nearly half of their UN-allocated trust funds by getting signed approvals from senior judges.

In 1998 he applied for full custody of the two children, objecting to the children being brought up as Christians. This means Siham often had to go into hiding with them. After advocacy and publicity attracted attention to her case, King Abdullah II of Jordan and other members of the Royal Family pledged that the children would be able to stay with their mother.

Siham and her children live in Husn, northern Jordan, where they are members of Husn Baptist Church.

CSW supporters have written to King Abdullah raising Siham's case and CSW has also conducted discreet advocacy on her behalf. Many CSW supporters have sent letters and cards to Siham and have been praying for her over the last few years.

Mervyn Thomas, Chief Executive of CSW, said: "We rejoice with Siham at this tremendous news. CSW has been working over many years to help her stay with her children and provide for their futures. We hope that a new custodian will be found that will allow Siham and her children to stay together. We and others have been engaged in a long struggle on her behalf and now share in her joy at this very positive development.

"However, we remain deeply concerned that even after this victory, Siham is still unable to be her children's legal guardian, due to a previous ruling that deemed her to be an unfit custodian due to her decision to continue raising them as Christians. CSW strongly condemns the fact that religious affiliation was given precedence over the best interests of the children in deciding a custody case."

The case breaches Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which protects the liberty of parents and legal guardians to ensure the religious and moral education of their children is in conformity with their own conviction and Article 9 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child which stipulates that children shall not be separated from their parents against their will except where such separation is necessary for the best interests of the child.