The Taipei District Court yesterday decided that Cary Sartin, the American father of a little girl named Emily who is at the center of a custody battle, cannot leave the country with his daughter until a court hearing has been completed.
"The court has agreed to the provisional disposition, which prohibits Emily from leaving the country throughout the custody trial," Taipei District Court spokesman Liu Shou-sung (
Emily's mother was previously identified as Ruan, but is identified as Nadia Juan (
Juan on Monday filed a petition asking the Taichung District Court to dismiss an enforcement order that had granted the father custody of the girl.
Meanwhile, her lawyer also applied to the court for the provisional disposition.
The legal situation was complicated by the fact that Juan, who lives in Taipei City, had her household registered in Taichung City.
Registration
Laws requiring Taiwanese to register their "household" -- essentially a permanent address -- are a relic of the authoritarian era, and the registration rarely reflects an individual's actual living arrangements.
However, individuals are required to return to the area in which their household is registered to conduct legal proceedings, or for civic duties such as voting.
To simplify matters, Juan on Monday transferred her household registration form Taichung City to Taipei City. Therefore, the Tai-chung District Court decided to transfer the lawsuit to the Taipei District Court.
Ruan yesterday also filed a custody suit with the Taipei District Court asking the court to give her custody of the girl.
Ruan's lawyer yesterday told reporters that they have been in touch with Sartin's lawyer, and hoped that he would allow Juan to see her daughter before Mother's Day on May 14.
The Taipei District Court yesterday summoned Juan to make her case regarding the provisional disposition, and in the afternoon the court agreed to prevent Emily from leaving the country during the custody trial.
Jurisdiction
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs weighed in on the case yesterday, saying the custody dispute must be settled by a Taiwanese court.
Ministry Spokesman Michel Lu (
"When the ruling was made in the US, Ms. Juan was not in court ... Now that she has appealed the ruling and brought her case to a Taiwanese court, the US court ruling can be excluded in Taiwan," Lu said yesterday.
Lu said the US-Taiwan Judicial Assistance Agreement -- which provides for legal cooperation between the two countries -- did not apply, because the US court ruled when Juan was absent.
"Now the girl's custody has to be decided by a Taiwanese court, because she is still a citizen of Taiwan," Lu said yesterday.
Lu said that because the girl entered Taiwan with a Taiwanese passport, she can't leave the country with a foreign passport.
"We won't issue a new passport to the girl as her current passport is still valid," Lu said.
Juan, the former New York correspondent for the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)-run newspaper Central Daily News, refuses to hand over the passport.
Sartin, a 55-year-old US citizen from New York, attempted to take the girl back to the US with him last week, but was stopped by the immigration police as the girl was not using her Taiwanese passport when passing the immigration point.
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
‘LIKE-MINDED PARTNER’: Tako van Popta said it would be inappropriate to delay signing the deal with Taiwan because of China, adding he would promote the issue Canadian senators have stressed Taiwan’s importance for international trade and expressed enthusiasm for ensuring the Taiwan-Canada trade cooperation framework agreement is implemented this year. Representative to Canada Harry Tseng (曾厚仁) in an interview with the Central News Agency (CNA) said he was increasingly uneasy about Ottawa’s delays in signing the agreement, especially as Ottawa has warmed toward Beijing. There are “no negotiations left. Not only [is it] initialed, we have three versions of the text ready: English, French and Mandarin,” Tseng said. “That tells you how close we are to the final signature.” Tseng said that he hoped Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
RSS