(source: Sme)
PETER Husár is eight years old and lives with his mother in Slovakia. Two weeks ago, his father who is Greek and has an American passport kidnapped him in front of his school in Bratislava and took him abroad.
The police found the boy when he and his father were boarding a ferry in Italy. The Italian authorities took the boy and placed him in a facility for children. The boy's mother, who is in Italy and is only allowed to meet her child for two hours every day, has been trying to have him return to Slovakia for a week now, but the Slovak court which was to rule about the guardianship order of the father suspended the proceeding in his case on February 3, the Slovak Radio (SRo) reported. The Italian authorities have been waiting for the ruling before releasing the child.
"Slovak court does not have the power to rule about the rights and duties of the parents towards the minor, since the USA is the country of usual residence of the minor and the minor is currently not in the territory of the Slovak Republic," the court's spokesperson Peter Adamčiak told SRo.
The parents of the child have been living separately for some time now. After the mother stayed with the child for a longer time in Slovakia last year, the father had a guardianship order issued by the US authorities. The order, however, is not valid in Slovakia, according to the SRo report. Only the American courts are authorised to rule about the rights and duties of the parents in this case, Adamčiak told the radio.
The Slovak Justice Ministry is cooperating with the Italian authorities regarding the case, and expects the matter to be solved soon "in the best interest of the child", the ministry spokesperson Alexandra Donevová told SRo.
President Andrej Kiska and the Centre for Labour, Social Affairs, and Family are also involved in the case, SRo reported.
