On April 28, little Saray, aged 5, was violently extracted from the arms of her father, in front of her school in Tavernes Blanques, a Spanish town in the province of Valencia. On Wednesday, the mother of the little girl, who lives in Nîmes, admitted having recovered her and refuses the qualification of “kidnapping. We simply brought her back to Nîmes, to our home,” she explains, to Free lunch. The child has been the subject for almost three years of a legal tussle between the two parents, who live on each side of the Pyrenees.
What happened on April 28?
On a video taken by a neighbor, we see his father being attacked by two men. They then flee in the car with the little girl they have just snatched from the father’s arms.
The grandfather of the little girl and her uncle admitted to having recovered the child. “After trying everything, we had no other choice,” explains the mother to the regional daily. The parents have been separated since August 2020. “Yes, we went to pick up the little one as best we could. But we have the right with us, ”says the maternal grandmother. The family denounces the total inability to communicate with the father since February.
What were the court decisions on the Spanish side?
On August 12, 2020, Saray’s mother left Spanish territory with her child. “On March 3, 2021, a Spanish court declared Saray’s removal from Spain unlawful, ordered his return and, once in Spain, the withdrawal of his identity document in order to prevent any exit from the territory”, underlines Lucia Ekaizer, the father’s lawyer in France.
In another judgment of September 16, 2021, a Spanish family court judge granted custody of the child to the mother on the condition that the child return to Spain. “This decision was provisional pending psychological expertise from the father and mother. The expert had just been appointed, ”says the lawyer.
And on the French side?
At the same time, the mother took legal action in France. On November 2, 2020, the latter recognized the wrongful removal of the child. The exception for the dangerousness that she was likely to suffer in the event of a return to Spain, was however retained by the court, thus following the requisitions of the mother’s lawyer. A decision upheld on appeal. “But it was broken at the end of 2022 by the Court of Cassation, specifies the lawyer for the father. The examination of the dangerousness was not carried out with regard to the danger which could incur the child on his return to Spain. Proof of this dangerousness, according to the Hague Convention, must be provided with regard to the return of the child and the conditions of the child in his country of origin”.
At the same time, the mother seized the family court judge in Nîmes who granted her custody of the child. As well as a right of visitation by the father, and – later – a right of accommodation with him. In July 2022, the mother handed over the child to her, which she was to collect at the end of the month. “But, the Spanish justice having prohibited the exit of the territory of Saray, the father complied with the decision of March 2021”, specifies the lawyer. Since then, Saray was at his side in Spain.
What will be the outcome of this case?
Following the procedure for kidnapping and forcible confinement initiated in Spain, the mother and the maternal grandparents were heard at the central police station in Nîmes. They emerged free from this hearing. The procedure is following its course in Spain.
In addition, following the decision of the Court of Cassation, the consequences of the departure from Spain of the mother with her daughter in 2020, must be retried by the Court of Appeal of Montpellier. The father also appealed to the Nîmes Court of Appeal against the family court judge’s decision to award custody of the child to the mother. The mother, for her part, demanded the nullity of the decision prohibiting the little girl from leaving Spanish territory, taken by the court in March 2021.
While waiting for these legal consequences, little Saray is again at her mother’s side. She should be quickly educated in a school in Nîmes.