TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A Taipei District Court on Friday (Dec. 2) deemed that a child caught up in an international custody dispute between an Italian businessman and a Taiwanese woman should visit her father in Italy during major breaks in the school year.
The case involves a Taiwanese woman surnamed Chan (詹) and an Italian man surnamed Lan (藍) fighting for custody of their daughter, which has gone as high as the Supreme Court before ultimately being sent back down to a lower court. Taiwan's Constitutional Court found that the Supreme Court acted unconstitutionally in not considering the wishes of a minor and sent the case back to the Supreme Court, which did not take up the case and sent it back to the Taipei District Court for a new ruling.
On Friday, the Taipei District Court ruled that in order to strengthen the direct and personal relationship between the child and her father in his home country, the girl is required to travel to Italy during winter and summer vacations, and live with her father and relatives for 10 days and 30 days, respectively, reported CNA. It also stated that this was necessary to preserve the girl's rights as a dual Italian-Taiwanese citizen.
The court said although the girl had previously testified that she did not wish to go to Italy to see her father during the vacations, an investigation revealed this contradicted her statements that she missed her father and indicated that she was traumatized by her previous unlawful custody by her mother. The court stated that amid the family dispute, she was caught in the loyalty dilemma, and her statements did not necessarily reflect her true intentions.
The court added the loss of trust between the parents not only caused the child to lose the linguistic and cultural advantages of dual nationality, but also caused her trauma from being separated from a parent and the unlawful custody. In order to rebuild a cooperative relationship between the parents, the court expressed its hope the child can regain access to the unique resources that she should have as a dual citizen, and it referred the two parties and their child for individual and parent-child counseling.
In the verdict, the court reminded the parents that regardless of their current or future roles as cohabiting parties or visiting parties, they should help their child overcome the trauma of unlawful custody. The court stated the parent-child relationship should be promoted so that she can freely come and go between her parents. Otherwise, the court warned that it will consider the parents to be incompetent, affecting their parental rights.
The court said if the two parties do not cooperate with the ruling or fail to deliver the child to the other party within the set time, the court will consider it improper parental conduct, which could impact the present custody arrangements.
In its initial ruling, the Taipei District Court established that Chan abducted the child and that Lan had filed for custody within one year. The court ruled that Chan must hand over custody of the child to Lan, who had planned to take her to Italy, but Chan failed to comply with the ruling and the legal battle has continued to the present.
