"I don't want to go," were the words that eight-year-old Iruan Ergui Wu (
The police were trying to enforce a Supreme Court order in the long-running custody dispute regarding the Taiwanese-Brazilian boy's legal guardian.
The boy, the orphaned son of a Taiwanese fishing boat captain and his Brazilian wife, had been due to start a 40-hour journey to Brazil via Hong Kong and Johannesburg today, after the judge gave his uncle an ultimatum on Friday.
PHOTO: REUTERS
The custody battle between the child's uncle, Wu Huo-yen, and his Brazilian grandmother began three years ago.
The uncle, Wu Huo-yen (吳火眼), refused to hand over Iruan, but police seized the child and began carrying him away from Wu's house.
But intervention by neighbors, who scuffled with police at the scene while Iruan sat down on a sofa in the living room and began to cry, forced the police to retreat.
Although police officers said they would enforce the law no matter what, they were clearly unprepared for the angry mob of residents and swarm of journalists that surrounded them as they tried to get away with the child. To mollify the crowd, the police decided to leave Iruan at a neighbor's residence next to Wu's to comfort the boy while they awaited further instructions.
Yesterday was the deadline by which Iruan's uncle was ordered by the court to hand over the boy to Brazil Business Center Director Paulo Pinto, who is representing Iruan's grandmother, Rosa Ergui.
But the Taiwanese-Brazilian boy did not catch his flight.
Kaohsiung District Court Judge Liao Cheng-hsiung (
But, adding to the farce, the judge and his superior, Huang Guo-chuan (黃國川), negotiated with Wu's wife, Lee Su-hua (李素華), to let Iruan stay in Kaohsiung last night in police custody.
Pinto said in response that Iruan should have been in his custody. At press time, Pinto was waiting to learn where Iruan would be kept so that he could stay with him overnight before accompanying him to Kaohsiung International Airport.
Liao and Pinto had arrived at the Wu residence at 10am last Friday to carry out the court order stating that custody of Iruan belongs to Ergui and that the boy should be escorted back to his home in Porto Alegre, Brazil.
However, Iruan's uncle insisted that the legal process was not complete and said that Liao had no right to take Iruan away.
According to the district court, an official notice was delivered to Wu in person by police officers on Jan. 5. In accordance with the Civil Code (
Wu Huo-yen, however, insisted that he never signed any official notice.
Liao immediately handed another official notice to Wu Huo-yen at the scene and asked him to hand the boy over to the district court at 11am yesterday. Again, Wu Huo-yen and Iruan did not show up on time.
In the meantime, Lin Hsien-tung (林憲同), a lawyer who was hired by Wu on Sunday night, filed a request to keep Iruan in Taiwan until April.
The request was immediately rejected. In addition, Liao decided to issue an arrest warrant for Wu Huo-yen.
When approached by reporters, Pinto, however, said that the entire process was like a joke to him.
"They [the Wus] don't have to do this. We have prepared five visas for the Wu family members as well as Iruan's teacher. They can fly to Brazil with us as soon as they have their photos attached to these visas," he said.
RESTAURANT POISONING? Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang at a press conference last night said this was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan An autopsy discovered bongkrekic acid in a specimen collected from a person who died from food poisoning after dining at the Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said at a news conference last night. It was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said. The testing conducted by forensic specialists at National Taiwan University was facilitated after a hospital voluntarily offered standard samples it had in stock that are required to test for bongkrekic acid, he said. Wang told the news conference that testing would continue despite
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)