US father pleads for boy's return

The American father of a boy at the centre of a Brazil-US custody dispute made an emotional appeal to be reunited with his son yesterday, calling the situation "cruel, tragic and sad."

A Brazilian Supreme Court judge blocked the return of nine-year-old Sean Goldman to the US on Thursday, saying the boy's own will should be taken into account in order to resolve the long-running custody dispute that has reached top government levels.

New Jersey resident David Goldman had flown to Brazil on Thursday after another Brazilian federal court ruled that Sean must be handed over to US authorities within 48 hours, giving him hope that the five-year-long saga might finally be over.

In a statement, the US Embassy in Brazil said that the Hague Convention, aimed at curbing child abductions that both countries have signed, called for the immediate return of abducted children to minimize the human and social costs.

Mr Goldman has been fighting for custody of Sean since his then-wife took the boy on vacation to her native Brazil in 2004, then divorced him and stayed there in what Mr Goldman and the US government call a clear case of child abduction.

The mother remarried but died last year. Her family and second husband have sought to keep the boy in Brazil.

The family says that Sean wants to stay in Brazil and argued in their latest petition to the Supreme Court that the boy's own statements should be taken into consideration.

Supreme Court judge Marco Aurelio Mello agreed with them and the case is now on hold until at least February. Lawyers with experience of child abduction cases under the Hague law say that a child's will is normally given little weight if the child is under the age of 12.

"My son is suffering and losing the innocence of a child. He doesn't deserve this," said Mr Goldman, whose lawyers are planning to appeal the judge's decision.

He showed reporters a letter he wrote to Sean that had been returned to him, accusing the Brazilian family of intimidating Sean and trying to stop them from seeing each other.

"It's a constant intimidation. The boy is afraid," he said.

Mr Goldman's case threatened to disrupt Brazil-US ties this year after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged Brazil's government to push for the boy's return. Lawyers for the Brazilian family have said the US ambassador pressured Brazil's government to get involved in the case.