Brazil’s top court suspends ruling that ordered 9-year-old boy back to his US father

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Brazil’s top court halts boy’s return to US dad

RIO DE JANEIRO — A long-running fight by a New Jersey man to win custody of his 9-year-old son from the Brazilian family of his deceased ex-wife has been delayed again — and the battle is turning ugly.

David Goldman has spent more than five years trying to gain custody of his son, Sean, who was taken to Brazil in 2004 by Goldman’s then-wife Bruna Bianchi. She decided to stay, divorced Goldman and remarried before dying while giving birth to a daughter last year.

On Thursday he arrived in Rio, looking weary and cautious but hoping to finally return to the United States with his son after a federal court ruled Wednesday that the boy had to be turned over.

But the Supreme Court suspended that decision just four hours after Goldman landed, deciding the boy must remain in Brazil pending a motion to hear the child testify on where he wants to live.

Sen. Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey responded by placing on hold a trade bill that would benefit Brazil and other countries to export some products duty-free to the United States.

The reversal means the boy will be in Brazil at least until Feb. 1, following the justices’ return from a recess, according to a court spokesman who commented on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to discuss the case.

The Brazilian family celebrated, and their lawyer produced for reporters a drawing he said Sean had made: “I want to stay in Brazil forever,” it read in big, green lettering in Portuguese.

But Goldman called the ruling “ridiculous” and said he could not believe the Brazilian courts would “allow a child to remain separated from their only parent and try to turn that child against that parent.”

He added that to “demand a 9-year-old, innocent … psychologically damaged child to speak in a court is beyond cruel.”

“We’re studying the decision and we’ll decide what to do soon,” said Goldman’s lawyer Ricardo Zamariola.

The case has gained attention at the highest levels.

President Barack Obama, the U.S. Congress and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton have all urged the child’s return, and a U.S. congressman traveled to Rio on Thursday to continue lobbying on behalf of Goldman.

In his decision, Justice Marco Aurelio Mello wrote that “at stake is a fully formed life. At stake is the right to come and go, the right of opinion, expression and human dignity.”

Mello told reporters afterward that the Supreme Court will now “question the necessity of Sean, the boy, who is almost 10-years-old, to be heard directly by a judge.”

Silvana Bianchi, Sean’s maternal grandmother, told the private Agencia Estado news service she was elated with the decision. According to her, Sean, who has dual citizenship, says he wants to remain in Brazil.

“His testimony has never been heard,” she said. “As a Brazilian citizen, he deserves it. He is a child of nearly 10 and he knows quite well what he wants.”

Shortly before the stay was announced, Goldman, dressed in black, stepped off a 12-hour flight from New York and into a large scrum of reporters at Rio’s international airport.

Facing the crowd of cameras and microphones, he looked blank and uttered just a few words — appearing every inch a man exhausted and fearful that, one more time, a last-minute appeal would keep him from taking his boy back to New Jersey.

“I hope I can go home with my son,” Goldman quietly told reporters.

Sergio Tostes, attorney for Sean’s stepfather, Joao Paulo Lins e Silva, said the case should never have reached the political levels it has.

“This is not a fight between two countries,” Tostes said. “This is just the pursuit of the truth and the pursuit of what is in the best interest of the boy.”

Goldman and Sean were reunited in February for the first time since his son was taken to Brazil. They have not seen each other since June.

Associated Press writers Marco Sibaja in Brasilia, Brazil, and AP Television News Producer Flora Charner in Rio de Janeiro contributed to this report.