Czech court reverses autistic boy's return to US

Czech Republic Rules Against Return of Autistic Boy to US in Part Because of His So-Called Mental Illness.

This Czech newspaper article's tone is disturbing: It sounds like the most of the sources the reporter talked to do not take the Hague Convention seriously.

Czech news article: Czech woman need not return ill son to father in USA — court.

Czech woman need not return ill son to father in USA -- court

http://www.ceskenoviny.cz/
04.04.2007

Brno- Czech woman Eva Macready need not return her mentally ill son Aiden Thomas, whom she brought to the Czech Republic as a little baby, to his father in the USA, and the boy can stay in his mother's care, the Czech Supreme Court has ruled, its spokesman Petr Knoetig confirmed to CTK today.

The mother said she was pleased by the final verdict in the case that had been proceeded for three years. She added it gave her hope that courts in the Czech Republic take children's benefit into consideration in their decision-making.

"Common sense has won," she stressed.

Eva Macready married a U.S. citizen in Texas and gave birth to their child, but later she decided to leave her husband.

She explained that he threatened her and the boy as he suffered from a mental disease, autism. Its symptoms have also appeared with the son.

The Supreme Court decided that the boy would stay with his mother in the Czech Republic over his health condition.

The international convention on legal aspects of children's abduction says that an underage child cannot be returned if he/she is threatened with psychological or physical harm abroad.

The court experts concluded in this case that the boy had a strong bond to his mother and the return to the USA would harm his condition.

The mother's defence counsel Marie Minarova said that though the father knew that Eva Macready was planning to leave for the Czech Republic with the child, he later demanded the son's return in court.

The Municipal Court in Brno first approved his demand, ruling that the mother took the child abroad at variance with the law. The Regional Court then changed the verdict and decided that the boy should stay in the Czech Republic.

The father filed a recourse with the Supreme Court, which rejected his arguments and definitively confirmed that the boy should stay with his mother.

Czech courts were in the past criticised for too formal decision-making on children whose parents lived in different countries and for not sufficiently assessing the conditions of children's transfer abroad.

In a recent dispute for a child, a Czech court, citing The Hague convention on kidnappings, ordered six-year-old Sara Baraova to be delivered back to her father in Portugal, from where her mother kidnapped her under international law two years ago. The handing over of the girl in Prague was accompanied by tears and the parents' tussle for Sara.

Sara, who kept weeping and refusing meals in Portugal, has been eventually reunited with her mother and returned to the Czech Republic yesterday. She will live with her mother and will make several visits a year to her Portuguese father.

Czech Justice Minister Jiri Pospisil says that judges do not always keep the interests of children in mind when deciding on international disputes for them, and he is considering setting up a special court panel to exclusively deal with these cases.

The Czech Office of International Legal Protection of Children will probably also face changes in this respect.

Author: ČTK