The Prague Post
October 8th, 2008
Endowment Fund     Business Listings ONLINE      Reservations      Classifieds    Subscriptions
Real Estate Prague Prague Rentals Prague Apartments Prague Art & Antiques

Home » Archives » News

Court gives fugitive mother custody

Father appeals milestone ruling despite charges of abuse

By Ondřej Bouda
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
March 5th, 2008 issue

A landmark child custody ruling has left a Czech mother relieved to be allowed to keep her son in the country, and an American father planning an appeal to have the child returned to him in the United States.
On Feb. 25, Prague 5 District Court decided that Czech citizen Veronika Horváthová, who had kidnapped her 4-year-old son Adrian from his father, California resident Pablo Santana, would be given full custody. This is the first time in Czech history that the Child Abduction Section of the Hague Convention has been used to grant custody to a parent who has kidnapped a child.
The dispute over Adrian began in spring 2005, when Santana filed for divorce from Horváthová after she called the police claiming he’d assaulted her and her son in their San Francisco home. As a result of those divorce proceedings, a California court granted custody to Horváthová and limited visitation rights to Santana. The ruling forbade Horváthová from leaving the country, as such an act would infringe upon the father’s right to see his son.
According to a statement from Horváthová’s current lawyer, she was not satisfied with the arrangement and spoke with the Czech consulate in Los Angeles. She claims the consulate advised her to take her son to the Czech Republic, where she could better protect him from the alleged abuse, and helped her attain passports (the Foreign Affairs Ministry did not respond to this claim by press time). In August 2005, Horváthová defied the custody ruling by abducting Adrian and traveling to the Czech Republic.
Santana immediately started court proceedings to have his son returned, which resulted in a court order granting Santana temporary custody until both parents could appear in court and a proper decision could be made. Santana then followed Horváthová to the Czech Republic, where two subsequent court decisions in 2006 — first in Náchod and then in Hradec Králové — agreed that Adrian should be returned to him.
According to her lawyer, Horváthová felt the rulings were unjust as they failed to consider the potential mental and physical harm to her son by his father, whom she said abused her and the boy violently and is addicted to marijuana. Santana’s lawyer, Radek Matouš, denied all such claims. “Despite several tests, no addiction has been proved and evidence for the alleged abuse never showed up,” he said, speaking on behalf of his client. “It is my client who has been abused because the defendant only used him to get a green card.”
Horváthová appealed the order to return her son to the Czech Supreme Court, then took the child into hiding for nine months, becoming a fugitive on the Interpol wanted list. In July 2007, the Czech Supreme Court responded to her appeal by ordering a retrial to consider the best interest of the child, at which point Horváthová came out of hiding.
Current status
Last week, Prague 5 District Court ruled that, because the child had spent so much time in the Czech Republic and did not speak English, a return to the United States could be potentially harmful, and awarded custody to Horváthová. She claimed that the psychological damage that her son suffered led him to breastfeed until he was 3 and a half years old (Adrian’s weaning coincided with the Supreme Court’s July decision for a retrial).
This most recent court decision has been welcomed by many who celebrated the fact that the Child Abduction Section of the Hague Convention was being interpreted in such a way that the well-being of the child was considered above all else, even though it meant granting custody to the parent who had kidnapped the boy. “I am convinced this is a unique case that warrants just such a decision, and I hope that, in the future, the state will look more after children’s interests,” said Horváthová’s lawyer, Pavlína Vondráčková.
“We are glad the Supreme Court has set a precedent for interpretation of the Hague Convention. Each case has to be considered individually,” agreed Kristýna Kotalová, spokeswoman for the Labor and Social Affairs Ministry. “We acknowledge our fault in that the case took so long but, even so, this [outcome] is much better for the child.” The Office for the International Legal Protection of Children within the ministry has developed a plan that would enable joint custody and frequent visits for Santana in Prague.
Santana, however, immediately refused any such deal. “I want to raise my son,” he said on Czech television as he emerged from the court room immediately following the decision. “I traveled over 6,000 miles just for that reason.”
Santana’s lawyer said they cannot accept an unfair deal and will appeal the court decision shortly. “The proposed plan would effectively mean that my client would never get to see his son again,” Matouš said. “An eventual deal will have to be balanced.”

Ondřej Bouda can be reached at news@praguepost.com


Other articles in News (5/03/2008):

Browse the Current Issue

If you enjoyed this article, why don't you subscribe to the print version!
We accept secure online transactions provided by PayPal and Moneybookers

Be the first to add a comment!


Full Name: *
City: *
E-mail: **
This comment can be published in the print version of The Prague Post
Enter the text on the right:
 visual captcha
Comment: *
* Required field. In order to be approved for display, comments must have a first and last name and a city.
** E-mails are required and will only be used for internal purposes.

Most visited in Business Listings

Hotel booking
The Prague Post Online contains a selection of articles that have been printed in
The Prague Post, a weekly newspaper published in the Czech Republic.
To subscribe to the print paper, click here.
Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited.