To stay with his maternal grandmother or his biological father may involve a lot of soul-searching for 9-year-old Sean Goldman.
So the custody battle over the American-born Brazilian boy continues, and once again made headlines on Thursday when Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court delayed Sean’s return to his U.S. father the day David Goldman flew in from New Jersey in the hope of taking the boy home for Christmas.
The lawsuit, which has been already dragging on for five years, witnessed an overnight twist as the Supreme Court suspended the previous day’s appellate court decision ordering the child be handed over to David.
Marco Aurelio Mello, a justice on the Supreme Federal Court decision panel, cited habeas corpus as the consideration behind the court’s suspension.
“The habeas corpus review which seeks to ensure the child’s own right has not happened,” the judge argued. “He is, initially, old enough to decide if he returns to the United States, or if he stays in Brazil.”
The judge also cited the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Child.
Sean’s grandmother, Silvana Bianchi, elated with the Supreme Court ruling, told the press: “His testimony has never been heard. As a Brazilian citizen, he deserves it. He is a child of nearly 10,and he knows quite well what he wants.”
The lawyer for the Brazilian family has shown the press a card allegedly drawn by Sean. It reads in large green letters: “I want to stay in Brazil forever.”
The lawyer of Sean’s father has confirmed that the Supreme Court ruling meant that Goldman would not be able to pick up his son at the American Consulate in Rio de Janeiro on Friday.
“The Court of Appeals, the three judges, recognized the urgency of my son to come home. This stay is ridiculous,” Goldman fumed.
Sean will most likely remain in Brazil until at least Feb. 1 of next year, when local judges end their year-end recess which starts on Monday next week.
Mello explained to the press that the Supreme Court would question the necessity of Sean’s being heard directly by a judge to make sure what his will is.
The legal battle started not long after Goldman’s Brazilian wife took Sean back to Brazil in 2004 for a vacation.
But the woman later changed her mind, stayed, and eventually obtained a Brazilian divorce and then remarried.
Goldman and his son were reunited for the first time in February this year, the only time since Sean was taken to Brazil.
Goldman started the lawsuit citing the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, which has been adopted by the United States.
The convention seeks the return of children wrongfully removed or retained in any contracting state and ensures that the rights of custody in the contracting state be respected.
U.S. Congressman Rep. Chris Smith on Thursday traveled to Brazil to lobby the case and said: “We have a reciprocity agreement when it comes to abducted children. We all have an international obligation to work to get children back to their habitual residence.”
During the lawsuit, U.S. President Barack Obama and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton both urged the return of Sean to the United States.
Sergio Tostes, attorney for Sean’s stepfather, said that the lawsuit should never have attained such high political levels.
“This is not a fight between two countries. This is just the pursuit of the truth and the pursuit of what is the best interest of the boy.”
BRASILIA, Dec. 17 (Xinhua) — The Brazilian Supreme Federal Court Thursday suspended the return of 9-year-old Sean Goldman to the United States, where his father lives.
Marco Aurelio de Mello, a judge of the supreme court, shelved the Wednesday decision of the Federal Regional Court of Rio de Janeiro to send Goldman, saying the will of the child himself must be heard and made known.