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Israeli Husband Seeks Return of Children Wrongfully Retained in Australia after Consent to Relocate Revoked

By Janet Langjahr

Israeli Husband and Australian Wife live with their four boys (Boys) in Israel.

Wife takes Boys to Australia, where her parents live.

Wife claims that Husband abandoned his family financially and emotionally, in favor of a girlfriend. Without Husband, Wife felt she needed family support and, she claims, Husband agreed to her relocation with the Boys.

Husband denies abandonment and denies giving consent to Wife and children moving to Australia. He also maintains that Israeli authorities told him not to pay support.

Husband files an application for return of the Boys to Israel under the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction.

The jurisdiction dispute has been winding its way through the Australian courts for quite some time.

The trial court finds that the Boys were not wrongfully removed from Israel, because Husband did give his consent - but revoked it shortly afterward.

Accordingly, although Wife had not wrongfully removed the children, she did wrongfully retain them in Australia.

Wife appeals, but the intermediate appellate court upholds the trial court’s ruling and orders the return of the Boys to Israel.

Wife is seeking an appeal to the highest court in Australia and the court has stayed the return of the Boys until the appeal is concluded.

Meanwhile, Husband recently had his first visitation with the Boys in nearly two years.

Read more in this Australian Jewish News article: Israeli father battling Aussie wife for custody.

Full post as published by Florida Divorce - Child Custody - Domestic Abuse Law on October 25, 2008 (boomark / email).