internationalen Kindesentführung – Entführt Kinder

Angelika Werthmann zum Übereinkommen über die zivilrechtlichen Aspekte

 (Aussprache) – 19.11.

Er hat seine eigenen vier Kinder entführt, weil er ihnen ein besseres Leben bieten will. Das beschauliche niedersächsische Hermannsburg war dem Christen Axel H. nicht gut genug – in Afrika will er sich ein neues Leben aufbauen. Die Geschichte einer außergewöhnlichen Radikalisierung.

Der Weg nach Hermannsburg führt durch endlos scheinende Alleen, unter wuchtigen Baumkronen hindurch, durch die sich die Junisonne zwängt. Vorbei an Kartoffelfeldern, Klatschmohn, kleinen Fachwerkhäusern und großen Bauernhöfen. Provinz in ihren schönsten Farben. Auf besprühten Bettlaken werden Scheunen- und Schützenfeste angekündigt. Man könnte sagen: Hier ist die Welt noch in Ordnung. Oder wie die Leute in der Lüneburger Heide sagen: “Wenn die Welt untergeht, geh’ nach Hermannsburg, da hast du 20 Jahre Zeit, um dich darauf vorzubereiten.”

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Von den 8000 Einwohnern der Gemeinde sind schätzungsweise 90 Prozent getauft und noch in derKirche. Sie besuchen regelmäßig die Gottesdienste, an Feiertagen bleiben nur wenige Reihen in den Gotteshäusern frei. Die Scheidungsrate ist niedriger als im Bundesdurchschnitt, die Geburtenrate höher. Der Glauben ist in der Gemeinde fest verankert.

Axel H. reichte das nicht. Der 37-Jährige, in Hermannsburg geboren und aufgewachsen, gilt als christlicher Fundamentalist. Er wollte seine vier Kinder in einem strengeren Glauben erziehen, entführte die beiden Jungen und Mädchen am Ostersonntag, flog mit ihnen zuerst nach Ägypten, reiste dann in den Sudan. 70 Prozent der Bevölkerung sind dort muslimisch, Christen werden verfolgt, nur im Süden lebt eine streng religiöse christliche Minderheit. Nach Axel H. wird mit internationalem Haftbefehl gefahndet.

Der Fall ist außergewöhnlich: Derzeit sind etwa 300 Kinder beim Bundeskriminalamt registriert, die von Vater oder Mutter ins Ausland entführt wurden. In allen Fällen ist das Zielland das Heimatland des jeweiligen Elternteils.

Außenminister Guido Westerwelle sagte am Freitag im südsudanesischen Dschuba, es gebe Hinweise, dass sich Axel H. inzwischen wieder in Ägypten befinde. Sein Amtskollege im Sudan, Ali Karti, habe ihm die volle Kooperation und Unterstützung der Behörden in dem Fall zugesagt.

Die Botschaft in Kairo sei eingeschaltet und stehe mit den dortigen Behörden in engem Kontakt, sagte eine Sprecherin des Auswärtigen Amtes. Man bemühe sich darum, die Kinder zurückzuholen.

Zu Hause in Hermannsburg wohnen seine von ihm getrennt lebende Frau, Mutter der vier Kinder, und seine Eltern – tief verzweifelt und voller Angst um Jonas, 8, Benjamin, 6, Mirjam, 5, und Lisa, 4.

Hans-Heinrich Heine steht ihnen zur Seite. Er ist seit acht Jahren Pastor der Großen Kreuzkirche in der Mitte Hermannsburgs, einer selbständigen Gemeinde des Kirchenbezirks Niedersachsen-West. Ein freundlicher Mann, 39 Jahre alt, der aus der Region stammt und auch Plattdeutsch sprechen kann. Er sitzt in seinem Arbeitszimmer in einem ehrwürdigen Fachwerkhaus, umgeben von Büchern und Ordnern. Die meisten seiner Gemeindemitglieder kennt er persönlich, ihre Sorgen, ihre Nöte, ihren Kummer.

Axel H. verbietet Gottesdienst, Chor, Kindergarten

Seit Wochen kommen immer wieder Kinder zum Pfarrhaus, drücken den Klingelknopf auf der blau-weißen Porzellankachel, auf der “Heine” steht. Es sind Freunde und Schulkameraden von Jonas, Benjamin, Mirjam und Lisa. In ihren kleinen Händen halten sie Münzen aus ihren Sparschweinen oder einen Fünf-Euro-Schein. Sie wollen sich an der Spendenaktion beteiligen, die die Suche nach den Kindern finanziell unterstützen sollwww.grossekreuz.de.

Pastor Heine lernt das Ehepaar H. kennen, als es seinen ersten Sohn Jonas taufen will. Er ist es gewohnt, dass Eltern ihre Kinder segnen lassen, ohne diesen Anlass zu hinterfragen. Bereits beim Taufgespräch mit Katja und Axel H. fällt ihm daher auf, dass der Vater diesen Schritt sehr ernst nimmt, er viele theologische Fragen stellt, sich mit dem Thema Glaube und Gott intensiv beschäftigt hat.

Eineinhalb Jahre später soll Benjamin, der zweite Sohn, getauft werden. Axel H. hat sich verändert, seine Zweifel an der lutherischen Theologie sind noch größer geworden. “Man merkte bei ihm schon sehr deutliche Vorbehalte gegenüber der Kindtaufe”, erinnert sich Heine. Axel H. habe sich diskussionsfreudig gezeigt, nicht in unangenehmer Weise, aber hartnäckig. Benjamin wird trotzdem getauft.

Doch Axel H. kapselt sich ab, meidet den Gottesdienst. Wenn er in Kontakt tritt mit Pastor Heine, dann nur um intensive theologische Streitgespräche zu führen. Den anderen Kirchgängern wirft er Heuchelei vor.

Er schreibt Briefe, übt scharfe Kritik an der Kirche. Irgendwann antwortet ihm Heine nicht mehr. 2005 landet auf seinem Schreibtisch der schriftliche Kirchenaustritt des Familienvaters.

“Aus seiner Sicht war dieser Schritt nur die logische Konsequenz zum Ende der Debatte”, sagt Pastor Heine. “Axel H. hat sich mit der Kirche nicht mehr identifiziert. Jede Form von institutioneller Kirche war ihm ein Übel.” Seine beiden Töchter, die kurz hintereinander geboren werden, lässt er nicht mehr taufen, obwohl es ein Herzenswunsch seiner Ehefrau ist.

Wie kam er an die Pässe, Geburtsurkunden und Sparbücher?

Die Ehe beginnt zu kriseln. Axel H. entwickelt regelrechte Wahnvorstellungen, zitiert Bibelstellen, die er jedoch aus dem Kontext gerissen hat, und verbietet seinen Eltern, mit den Enkeln in den Kindergottesdienst zu gehen. Seiner Frau untersagt er, die Kinder in den Chor oder den evangelischen Kindergarten gehen zu lassen. Alles, was mit der Kirche zu tun hat, duldet er nicht. Katja H. fügt sich, sie will ihre Ehe retten.

Es gelingt ihr nicht. Im Jahr 2007 zieht Axel H. weg aus Hermannsburg, er verschwindet regelrecht von der Bildfläche, verliert seinen Job als Krankenpfleger. Aufgrund seiner fanatischen Tendenzen darf er seine Kinder nur unter Aufsicht eines Jugendamtsmitarbeiters sehen. Doch auch der kann nicht verhindern, dass er die Kinder verunsichert. Oft kehren sie regelrecht konfus zu ihrer Mutter zurück.

Axel H. hält sich mit Aushilfsjobs über Wasser, verbreitet seine radikalen Ansichten im Internet – und muss gleichzeitig den Plan geschmiedet haben, seine Kinder zu entführen. Teil des Plans muss gewesen sein, sich im Umgang mit den Kindern so zu verändern, dass bei Treffen keine Mitarbeiter des Jugendamtes mehr dabei sein müssen. Wie er das anstellte, dazu wollen die Ermittler nichts sagen.

Am Ostersonntag holt Axel H. seine Kinder zu einer Fahrradtour ab. Allein radelt er mit ihnen über die Felder zu einem Auto, fährt zum Flughafen Hannover und fliegt nach Ägypten.

Katja H. wird später sagen, sie habe ein merkwürdiges Gefühl gehabt, als er mit den Kindern losgefahren sei. Warum hat sie ihn fahren lassen? Wie kam er an die Pässe, die Geburtsurkunden, die Sparbücher?

“Katja hat sie ihm sicher nicht freiwillig gegeben”, sagt Pastor Heine. Auch die Ermittler vermuten, dass er die Papiere bereits bei Besuchen in der Vergangenheit heimlich an sich genommen, die Mutter das Fehlen jedoch nicht bemerkt hat.

Die Mutter wird rund um die Uhr von der Polizei betreut

Die Familie H. stammt aus Hermannsburg, ist seit Generationen integriert und engagiert. Die Entführung der vier Kinder macht in dem Ort schnell die Runde, die Anteilnahme ist enorm, die Hilflosigkeit enorm.

Pastor Heine ist selbst Vater dreier Kinder und doch sagt er: “Keiner von uns kann wirklich nachempfinden, was Katja gerade durchmacht. Und auch können wir ihr ihren Kummer nicht abnehmen.”

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Nach langem Zögern und nach ausführlichen Gesprächen mit den Ermittlern hat sich Katja H. entschieden, an die Öffentlichkeit zu gehen. Bei “sternTV” trat sie persönlich auf. “Nur die Hoffnung, meine Kinder wiederzusehen, hält mich aufrecht”, sagte sie dort und beschrieb ihre qualvollen Stunden der Verzweiflung. Wie ihre Kinder in Afrika wohl leben? Was sie essen? Wie sie an Trinkwasser kommen?

Katja H. wird von Polizeibeamten betreut, sucht Zuflucht bei Freunden und ihrer Familie, geht halbtags arbeiten, auch um sich abzulenken. “Sie ist jetzt an einem Punkt, wo sie Ruhe braucht. Sie kann nicht mehr”, sagt Pastor Heine.

“Bild”-Leser trafen Axel H. zufällig im Sudan, fotografierten die Kinder. Erst nach ihrer Rückkehr in Deutschland erfuhren sie von dem Fall. Katja H. hat es zur Kenntnis genommen, beruhigt hat sie eher die Nachricht, dass ihr Mann wieder in Ägypten sein soll.

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We wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year…

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May you be blessed with a safe, peaceful holiday in the company of family and friends, both far and near.

From our families to yours, we wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

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DA Child Abduction Unit Recovers Autistic Boy from Mexico

October 26, 2012

Source: scoopsandiego.com

San Diego County District Attorney Bonnie M. Dumanis announced today that her office’s Child Abduction Unit successfully located a 7-year-old autistic boy in Mexico and reunited him with his mother in San Diego.

An arrest warrant has been issued for 37-year-old Julio Rocha, who in 2007 took his then 2-year-old son, Keoni Rocha, to Mexico after the boy’s mother requested full custody. Julio Rocha has been charged with one felony count of child abduction.

“Locating missing children and returning them home to San Diego isn’t easy within the United States, let alone across an international border,” DA Dumanis said. “The dedicated investigators in our Child Abduction Unit routinely overcome difficulties in dealing with foreign governments to recover children from around the world.”

The DA’s Child Abduction Unit is contacted when a child is taken form his or her parent or rightful guardian in violation of that person’s right to custody. Investigators in the unit work with Mexico and other countries to track down children and get them home safely.

In this case, a young woman doing online research for a school project in Mexico came across a poster from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children with information about Keoni Rocha and his father. The girl recognized the boy as a neighbor and contacted authorities.

Thanks to help from the neighbor, District Attorney Investigators were able to negotiate a voluntary return of Keoni Rocha’s with his grandparents at the Mexico City airport last week.

“It was the most heart-wrenching return I have ever seen,” said DA Investigator Carole Snyder who works in the Child Abduction Unit. “The grandmother and the aunt knew this would be the last time they saw Keoni. The boy’s mother, Leilani Masumoto, who had not seen her son in five years, bonded like they were meant to be as soon as they were reunited at the airport.”

Last year, the DA’s Child Abduction Unit conducted 150 investigations and recovered 75 abducted children from around the U.S. In addition, the unit worked 30 cases involving children being abducted from, or taken to other countries, including, Mexico, Germany, Argentina, Columbia, and Dominica. In 2011, the Child Abduction Unit’s ‘Visitation Reporting System’ which is accessible via the DA’s website, logged 2,096 violations.

“Over the years, we’ve successfully located children and returned them from several countries including France, the Philippines, Sweden, Germany and Mexico,” DA Dumanis said. “Given San Diego’s location, a number of child abductions involve children who are taken across the border to Mexico.”

The DA’s Child Abduction Unit assists parents in both countries. The number of cross-border cases involving Mexico handled by the DA’s Office has grown from 10 cases in 2006, to 21 cases in 2011. So far this year, the unit has opened 15 such cases. The District Attorney’s Office Child Abduction unit is only involved when a parent or other family member abducts a child involving a violation of Family Court, Juvenile Court and/or Probate Court orders.

If anyone has information on the whereabouts of Julio Rocha, who is believed to be living in the United States, please call 619-531-4345

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Parental Abduction – Child Recovery Services

September 16, 2012

“After all my years of experience as Worldwide Medical Director for the worlds largest medical assistance company, I found only ABP World capable of providing the unique service of non-violent recovery of  an abducted child.

It is very difficult to find a company like ABP World that can provide the experience, honesty, integrity, and assets to actually recover an abducted child safely and at a reasonable cost. I hold ABP World in highest regard and recommend them whole heartedly. The world is simply a better place because of the work they do”. 

Tragically International Child Abduction has reached global epidemic proportions.  According to leading experts the increase in inter-racial marriages and relationships  will, in the future, lead to a significant rise in the number of children born to parents of different nationalities

As is true for all relationships, a statistically significant number of these marriages or partnerships will also end in divorce. All too often, following the breakup of a marriage, one of the parents will abduct a child of that relationship against the wishes of the other parent,  frequently removing them to a country where the child has probably never lived. This is called “International Parental Child Abduction”.  Although there are various civil remedies available to parents of abducted children, the challenges they face are enormous, including first and foremost, locating  the child.

Unfortunately for the majority of targeted parents, the financial burden involved in recovery and litigation falls upon their shoulders. With tens of thousands of children abducted by parents each year, the reality is that too many of these children never come home.  ABP World Group is dedicated to assisting those parents who need help in locating, rescuing, and returning  their abducted child home safely.

Our intelligence and investigative capabilities combined with our ability to dispatch personnel to most locations in the world offer a safe and strategic solution to protecting what is most important to you, your child.

Unfortunately in this present climate parental kidnapping occurs all too frequently and we are here to help you through this extremely traumatic period.

We are aware that parental child abduction can be difficult to resolve, but through the use of professional operatives with the skills and expertise necessary to find a resolution. We are here to help you with child recovery.

ABP World Group’s successful recovery and re-unification strategies rely on the use of all the means available  including, but not limited to:

. Electronic Forensic Foot printing Investigations

. Intelligence Gathering

. Information Specialists/Skip Tracing

. Evidence Procurement

. Interview/Evaluation

. Surveillance Special Ops

. Non-Combatant Evacuation Ops

. Domestic Support

. International Operations

. Maritime/Land/Air transport

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Man gets 60 days in child abduction case

September 11, 2012

Source: napavalleyregister

A 31-year-old man, arrested this summer at San Francisco International Airport as he allegedly tried to fly to the Middle East with his two young daughters in defiance of a court order, was sentenced Tuesday to two months in Napa County jail.

On July 12, authorities said, Alwawi was detained as he allegedly tried to board a plane with his two daughters to fly to Chicago and then to Amman, Jordan, in defiance of a child abduction prevention order, according to court documents.

His wife, from whom he was separated, had obtained the court order because she had become increasingly concerned that her husband wanted to leave the country with their two girls, according to court filings.

In September, Ahmad Alwawi pleaded no contest in Napa County Superior Court to two counts of child abduction.

A no contest plea, during which defendants neither admit nor dispute a charge, has the same immediate effect as a guilty plea in sentencing hearings.

On Thursday, prosecuting attorney Holly Quate said the 60-day sentence was “fair given the circumstances.”

Alwawi, an unemployed certified public accountant, had found new employment in Saudi Arabia, according to court filings. But he wanted his wife to leave behind her two older children from another relationship, court documents said.

Alwawi was separated from his wife in July, when he allegedly took his girls’ passports  his wife had hidden in an air conditioning vent, according to the probation report.

Alwawi, according to the report, expressed remorse for his actions and stated he has “lost everything.” His plan, Alwawi told the probation officer, was to show the three $8,500 plane tickets to his wife and return them for a refund, according to the court filing.

“The defendant said he then planned on returning home to show his wife that he had the ‘opportunity’ to leave and take their children, but he did not leave because ‘that’s how much I loved’ her. The defendant said he was ‘thinking with his heart and not his head,’” the probation officers wrote.

On Tuesday, Napa County Superior Court Judge Mark Boessenecker also sentenced Alwawi to serve 140 hours of community service and remain under probation for three years. Alwawi also has to obey a family court order, which includes staying away from his wife and two daughters, the judge ruled.

A family court judge on Sept. 30 ordered that Alwawi can only see the two girls three times a week for three hours under supervision.

Alwawi, a former Napa resident who now lives in Benicia, reports to jail on Dec. 1.

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Father, step-mother and uncle arrested in child abduction case

August 23, 2012

Source: Globaltvbc

KELOWNA, BC; A young Lumby girl is back at home with her mother after her father attempted to abduct her Tuesday morning. 

The Oyama man and his wife along with a brother from Winfield were arrested and taken to Vernon police cells and are expected to face charges of abduction, assault and break and enter.

At about 8:35 a.m. Tuesday, Lumby RCMP were called after a girl was allegedly forcibly removed from her home.

It’s alleged the man also assaulted the girl’s mother and a second daughter. A landlord witnessed the abduction and attempted to intervene.

The child was carried to a waiting vehicle. The mother attempted to stop them, but was pushed aside.

There were three adults in the vehicle as it was seen driving away.

Police located the vehicle and made three arrests at Ricardo Road in Coldstream. The trio was released from jail on a promise to appear in court in September to face the charges.

Read it on Global News: Father, step-mother and uncle arrested in child abduction

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Expert: Parental abduction never in child’s best interest

An Ontario expert familiar with parental abduction cases speaks about how children are emotionally damaged by these incidents and relates two stories of children who were found in Toronto.

Terry Smith, Program Administration for Child Find Ontario, discussed the last side effects on children who have been abducted by a parent during a phone interview. She stressed first and foremost that parental abduction is a crime. “In almost all cases a child is not abducted for the good of the child.

Those cases are extremely rare. We have systems in place for when a child is in danger from another parent. Taking the law into your own hands is never the right way to go.” Smith said that for the most part parents who may not get along still do a wonderful job of co-parenting because they put the best interest of their children above all else.

Sometimes there are issues that need to be addressed which are by use of the systems that are in place. There may be reasons that the courts limit visitations for instance that a parent wants to change. By using the court system parents can work to give their children their best. “Parents may not always like the answers but the systems are managed by people who are without an emotional stake allowing them to work for what is in the best interest of the child.

The system works. In the rare cases that it doesn’t work parents need to challenge the system. Instead of abducting a child a good parent will come up with an idea to make the system work better. By and large co-parenting even without liking the former spouse is being done wonderfully every day.” It’s when a parent oversteps those systems, taking off with their child that everything falls apart.

Abducting ones own child is a crime. Still the public, media and even some law authorities view parental abduction as a ‘soft crime’ placing the bigger fears with stranger abductions. It is not often stressed the seriousness of parental abduction. The scars left on the child in these cases are not visible so they tend to be overlooked. “When found kids can do wonderfully when they are helped.

The children need to have support though in order to thrive and realize that they are not at fault.” While most parental abductions do not end violently some do.

Changing the public’s perspective of parental abduction is needed in order for more of these children to be found more quickly. The longer a child is on the run the more emotional damage there is and the longer it takes for the child to become a ‘real kid’ again when they are found. “When one person jumps out of line is when it goes wrong. When they feel that they are above the law their kids will suffer.

Parental abduction has serious side effects on the children. Trust, identity, living a lie, everything they knew of their life is gone, having to choose one parent over another-these add up on the overall toll to the child.” When a parent makes the decision to abduct their child they tend to not be considering their child’s best interest but rather their own. Being pulled away from the world a child knows has lasting effects. Kids who have been found and reunited with their other parent have said that they felt alone and isolated, betrayed by their parents and most damaging of all felt that they were in some way responsible for their parents actions.

The Victims of Violence website states that the child victim is often depressed, has a loss of community and stability, anger, loneliness, helplessness and a fear of abandonment. Some of the children have experienced Reactive Attachment Disorder, Separation Anxiety Disorder, Overanxious Disorder, Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Conduct Disorder, Disruptive Behaviour Disorder, Oppositional Defiant Disorder, eating disorders, learning disorders, regression and elimination disorders, and Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome as a result of their time on the run. Smith said that these children have to deal with a huge internal tug of war. While there are few cases in Canada where children taken in parental abductions have been murdered there are a few.

One case that Smith related dealt with a man who was angry at his ex and took their daughter in Toronto. He had threatened to kill both himself and the child. The man threw the girl off an overpass and then jumped. The child survived, the father did not. Regardless when a parent is abducting their child they are “not running on all cylinders” Smith said. Smith said that when children are found they can thrive. She related two stories about children who were found that live in the Greater Toronto Area. “One little boy that has been taken when he was four spent four years on the run. He had never been to school or a doctor.

Today he is thriving. His father made sure that he had the help and support he needed to go on.” Smith continued, “Another girl had been found after thirteen years. When a child has been missing for such a long period of time they are really strangers to their parents and visa versa. While there were many adjustments that had to be made she is doing okay today.” There is one time that it is wise to take your child and ‘run.’ If you are in an abusive relationship going to a shelter is the safe thing to do. This is legal and in the best interest of both you and your child. This is not parental abduction.

This is a safety issue. Go through the proper legal systems. If you are in danger then get help. Go to a shelter or contact the police. If you don’t think the police will be of help then tell someone like your doctor, your child’s teacher or a school employee about your situation. Above all learn your legal rights.”

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INTERNATIONAL MARRIAGE: Changing Japan as a safe haven for parental abductions

June 10, 2012

Source: Asahi.com

In February, 61-year-old Masahiro Yoshida was arrested for “abducting” his 7-year-old daughter from her elementary school in Ehime Prefecture the month before.

It marked the second time that Yoshida, a former professional jazz drummer, was driven to desperation and snatched his daughter, since his ex-wife has parental custody over his daughter, and he is not allowed to have any contact with her.

In Japan, courts do not recognize shared custody, and mothers retain custody in about 90 percent of court-mediated divorces involving minors.

In response to mounting criticism that Japan is a safe haven for parental abductions, the government finally submitted a bill to ratify the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, which provides for the return of unlawfully abducted children.

The legislation is unlikely to pass in the current Diet session, as deliberations of controversial bills to hike the consumption tax are taking center stage. But if enacted, the convention, which has 87 signatory countries, will mandate that Japan return children whom its nationals took from other countries in a divorce, unless it harms the child’s welfare.

The public’s perception in Japan is that such post-divorce disputes are taking place only between Japanese mothers and fathers from Western countries. But many Japanese parents now claim that the justice system here is equally tormenting those who lost custody over their children following a divorce.

The case involving Yoshida has much in common with the well-publicized arrest of an American man in 2009 after attempting to abduct his son and daughter and flee to the U.S. Consulate in Fukuoka.

According to Yoshida’s mother, Michiko, an 87-year-old former liquor store operator in Yokohama, it was her daughter-in-law who “abducted” her grandchild five years ago in an attempt to gain parental custody.

Michiko’s son is currently on trial at the Matsuyama District Court.

As Masahiro is likely to be given a prison sentence this time, Michiko said there must be fundamental flaws in the country’s justice system, which made her son a “criminal for just wanting to see his daughter.”

IS “GAIATSU” LAST RESORT?

In a nearly identical case, former family court judge Masanori Watanabe, 53, was arrested for abducting his daughter, then an elementary school third-grader, from a train station in Fukuoka in October 2005.

Watanabe, then a Yokohama-based lawyer, was subsequently given a suspended three-year prison sentence, dismissed from the bar association and cannot practice law.

“I certainly knew the consequences, but I thought it was my last opportunity to persuade her to come back to me when she becomes old enough to make her own judgments,” Watanabe said.

While waging court battles to gain custody of or visitation rights to their children, Yoshida and Watanabe campaigned for the Hague Convention, which they thought would help their causes.

“The convention means Japan’s last chance to review its cruel tradition to completely dismiss one parent’s right over children after divorce,” Watanabe said. “It is also my last resort to clear my name as a kidnapper.”

While the convention does not directly affect Japan-based families, Japanese and foreign parents here who lost custody pin hopes on their hopeful “gaiatsu,” or foreign pressure, scenario.

Lawyer Mikiko Otani, a member of the Legislative Council of the Ministry of Justice on the Hague Convention, said ratification will bring positive changes to the family courts here, which will examine and rule whether to return a child in accordance with the convention.

The family courts will need to examine and rule on what types of child-taking are unlawful and what serves as the best interest of children in ways that are convincing to foreign authorities.

If the expatriation of children becomes a common practice, courts need to break free from traditional reluctance in using force in family conflict cases. It will discourage parents from simply taking away their children, even by force, as is widely occurring today, she added.

“Ultimately, Japan will need to approve a form of shared custody, which is the norm in most of the countries that are signatory to the convention,” Otani said.

But gaiatsu inevitably draws a backlash. To the relief of Japanese parents who flee with their children from overseas, the proposed domestic legislation to set court procedures for a child’s repatriation sets strict criteria for judges to do so.

The vaguest and most potentially controversial clause among the six requirements is that courts need to ensure there will be no possibility that the concerned child suffers “physical or psychological” abuse once returned.

“Can courts expatriate its nationals, minors, over public opinion? I don’t think that can happen,” said a Japanese mother who fought a lengthy, exhausting court battle in Australia with her ex-husband over custody of their two children.

BACKLASH FOR CHANGE

Interestingly, parties opposing the convention, and moves that can lead to the idea of shared custody, include both those from conservative and liberal camps.

Conservatives say that the single custody system is vital to maintaining the integrity of “koseki,” or Japan’s family registry system.

Kensuke Onuki, a lawyer who has represented Japanese mothers who have brought their children to Japan, agrees that one of the divorced parents must back away, in order to make a child’s new environment more stable.

“I don’t think many Japanese can stand the Western way of communication between children and their divorced parents, in which both parents participate in their children’s growing-up process,” Onuki said.

A head of a parents’ group seeking visitation rights said that even many of its group members, mostly fathers, will find it too burdening to fulfill shared custody, given the limited roles they played in child-rearing before their divorce.

Recalling his days on a family court bench in the mid-1990s, ex-judge Watanabe expressed regret that he and his colleagues had no doubts that it serves the interests of children to grant custody to their mothers.

He added that judges believe that courts must respect women’s parental rights, because it was historically denied to them and they had to gain them through postwar feminism.

“I also remember my boss telling me that the court should give men a ‘free hand’ to start a new life by eliminating responsibility to raise their children, and I really did not find much wrong with it,” Watanabe said.

“Now I know how painful, how cruel it is for a parent, regardless of the mother or father, to have their access denied.”

Watanabe added that he knows that the signing of the Hague Convention may be just the beginning of change for Japanese society.

“But I won’t give up, because this is the only way left for me to show my love for my daughter,” he said.

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Summer Holiday Is Parental Child Abduction Season

Child Recovery Services

Tragically International Child Abduction has reached global epidemic proportions.  According to leading experts the increase in inter-racial marriages and relationships  will, in the future, lead to a significant rise in the number of children born to parents of different nationalities 

As is true for all relationships, a statistically significant number of these marriages or partnerships will also end in divorce.       All too often, following the breakup of a marriage, one of the parents will abduct a child of that relationship against the wishes of the other parent,  frequently removing them to a country where the child has probably never lived.    – This is called “International Parental Child Abduction”.

Although there are various civil remedies available to  parents of abducted children , the challenges they face are enormous, including first and foremost, locating  the child .

Unfortunately for the majority of targeted parents, the financial burden involved in recovery and litigation falls upon their shoulders. With tens of thousands of children abducted by parents each year, the reality is that too many of these children never come home.  ABP World Group is dedicated to assisting those parents who need help in locating, rescuing, and returning  their abducted child home safely.

Our intelligence and investigative capabilities combined with our ability to dispatch personnel to most locations in the world offer a safe and strategic solution to protecting what is most important to you : your child.

Unfortunately in this present climate parental kidnapping  occurs all too frequently and we are here to help you through this extremely traumatic  period.

We are aware that parental child abduction can be difficult to resolve, but through the use of professional operatives with the skills and expertise necessary to find a resolution. we are here to help you.

ABP World Group’s successful recovery and re-unification strategy relies on the use of all the means available  including, but not limited to:

Electronic Forensic Foot printing Investigations

Intelligence Gathering

Information Specialists/Skip Tracing

Evidence Procurement

Interview/Evaluation

Surveillance Special Ops

Non-Combatant Evacuation Ops

Domestic Support

International Operations

Maritime/Land/Air transport

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ABP World Group Risk Management

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Stepmom pleads guilty in Belgrade kids abduction case

June 1, 2012

Source: ktvq.com

The stepmother of three Belgrade children who were taken by their father to the Bahamas on a sailboat against custody orders pleaded guilty in Gallatin County District Court today.

Angela Bryant pleaded guilty to one count of parenting interference by accountability. As part of the plea agreement, Judge Mike Salvagni dismissed two more counts of parenting interference by accountability, all felony charges.

Salvagni accepted her plea and set sentencing for July 9 at 1:30 p.m. In addition, Salvagni released Bryant on her own recognizance. She is under supervision and has to wear a GPS monitoring bracelet. She’s ordered to stay in the state of Montana until her sentencing.

Court documents filed in Gallatin County say Bryant and her husband, James, failed to return his three children to their mother in Belgrade last August.

Court documents state that Angela purchased plane tickets for the three children from Miami, Florida to Bozeman to arrive on Aug. 17, 2011, but the children were not on the flight.

Court documents charging Angela also quote an email that Angela reportedly wrote to her son that says, “By the time we got them for the summer, there weren’t many ways to fight the custody thing without going back to Montana. We had thought we would be able to envoke the thing about the child being able to choose once they turned 14 but apparently, MT doesn’t do that any longer. We were told we would have to send them back home then start an investigation into Kelly before they could do anything to assist or charge parental custody. That just isn’t acceptable…”

Earlier this year, police tracked computer IP addresses and found that James was living in the Bahamas with Angela and his three children. They were able to serve a warrant when they learned that Angela flew into Hawaii. The U.S. Coast Guard pursued Bryant’s boat within a half-mile of international waters and arrested James in March. The children were then reunited with their mother, Kelly.

James Bryant has pleaded guilty to one count of parental interference. He’s scheduled for sentencing in June.

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One key to ABP World Group`s successful recovery and re-unification of your loved one is to use all necessary means available

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UK Phone Number: 020 3239 0013 –

Or you can call our 24h Emergency phone number: +47 45504271