The Constitutional Court has given a Taiwanese mother, surnamed Chan (詹), custody of her eight-year-old daughter, after litigation initiated by the girl’s Italian father.
The ruling overturned earlier decisions by the Taipei District Court and the Supreme Court, the latter made in February, which gave custody to the father, who planned to raise the girl in Italy.
Chan appealed to the Constitutional Court, which granted a provisional injunction on March 18 to prevent the daughter from being taken from Taiwan.
The appeal to the Constitutional Court was based on the lower court judges not hearing the girl’s testimony, along with the argument that there were errors in the litigation process.
The case attracted attention when the girl wrote a widely publicized letter to President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), saying in her own handwriting that she was happy living in Taiwan and did not want to live in Italy, while asking Tsai to help.
The Constitutional Court said that the Supreme Court trial should have included the girl’s testimony, and should have informed her of what changes would take place in her life upon residing in Italy, meaning that the girl did not receive due process according to the Constitution.
The court also said that because the girl has lived in Taiwan since December 2017, and had only resided in Italy for one year, Taiwan should be considered her place of residency.
The Constitutional Court found the Supreme Court in error by not taking length of residency into account, which would have been “in the best interest of the child,” it said.
Chan met the girl’s father in 2007 while she was working as a flight attendant, and they had a relationship in Taiwan, where the daughter was born in 2014, according to court documents.
The relationship ended and the father took the girl to Italy in 2017. The mother brought the girl back to Taiwan in December that year, which the father claimed was “abduction,” the documents show.
The first ruling by the Taipei District Court in January resulted in an appeal to the Supreme Court the following month.
In the girl’s letter, she wrote: “I was born and raised in Taiwan, and am now eight years old... In March, my father will take me away, but I want to stay in Taiwan and continue living with my mother, grandmother and grandfather.”
“I want to stay in Taiwan because it is a familiar place to me. My beloved friends and relatives are here, also my piano teacher and dance teacher, and friends who also love to play the piano and dance,” she said in the letter, handwritten in Chinese.
“Can President Tsai and court judges listen to my opinion?” she added.
“If I am taken from my most beloved mother, my heart would be broken, and I could not bear it,” she said.
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