The eight-year-old daughter of a Taiwanese mother and an Italian father does not have to stay with her father in his home country twice a year for 10 days each, the Supreme Court said on Friday, in the latest ruling in a years-long custody battle.
The case drew media attention last year, after the girl wrote a letter to President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) saying that she wants to stay in Taiwan.
The Supreme Court overturned a lower court decision that the girl would have to talk to her father via videocall once a week and visit him during the summer and winter school holidays.
Photo: Chang Wen-chuan, Taipei Times
The Supreme Court said it took into account the girl’s wish not to stay with her father and input from other parties involved.
It also took into account the previous arrangement’s weak legal foundation, as it was based on a preliminary injunction that was filed by a third party on behalf of the father, it said.
The custody battle began in 2017, when the father took the girl to Italy. Her mother, surnamed Chan (詹), protested the move. She later also traveled to Italy, where she applied for a new passport on her daughter’s behalf, which enabled her to take her back to Taiwan.
The father at the time described it as abduction.
Even though the parents were not married, they initially had joint custody of the girl, but Chan filed a lawsuit against that arrangement.
The Taipei District Court granted her sole custody in 2018, but decided that the father would have the right to visit his daughter.
However, he would not be allowed to take her out of the country without the mother’s consent, the district court ruled.
The father applied for a preliminary injunction in 2019, and was granted sole custody by the Supreme Court in January last year.
However, after the girl refused to be taken by judicial officers from her school a few months later, Chan requested a stay of execution, which was granted by the Constitutional Court in May that year.
The Constitutional Court sent the case back to the Supreme Court, which in October invalidated its initial ruling and sent the case back to the Taipei District Court.
The district court in December restored the mother’s custody, but even though it acknowledged that the child had expressed a wish not to stay with her father, it decided that she would have to travel to Italy twice a year.
Based on her “contradictory” statements — such as that she missed her father, but did not want to see him — the district court concluded that she was “facing a loyalty dilemma,” saying that her words “did not necessarily reflect her actual feelings.”
The mother then appealed to the Supreme Court, asking it to clarify the rights and requirements for both parties.
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