On August 10, 2022, the Tbilisi Court of Appeal's Chamber of Civil Cases upheld the Tbilisi City Court's dispute over the civil aspects of an international child abduction in 1980 under the Hague Convention. According to court papers, Georgia once again refused to send the juvenile to Germany due to the risk of violence - the "Young Barristers" statement promotes the claim.
The case file established that the parents had been in an unregistered marriage since 2015. They had a daughter in 2016. There have been repeated acts of violence against the son by the father in the Federal Republic of Germany. Also, on December 30, 2019, a man brutally assaulted his mother. In the presence of a child, he beat the woman in the face, causing injuries to the victim. On January 3, 2020, the Ingelheim Police Inspectorate issued a restraining order against the man, barring him from communicating with the woman in any form for 6 months, not even approaching her. On January 7, 2020, a parent filed a child abuse complaint against Wildwasser Wiesbaden, an anti-violence consultancy in Germany, which conducted a four-month study of the issue, which concluded that the child had been abused by the father.
In July 2020, on the day of the child's birthday, the man arrived at the mother's residence address, during which he tried to use force to enter the residence and take the child away. The woman was able to neutralize the man with the help of neighbors. In August 2020, the man again appeared at the mother's residence address and again requested the removal of the child. The man threatened to kill the woman. Was presumably drunk. In the interests of the child and personal safety, the mother left Germany and returned to Georgia in September 2020. Although the man and his entourage were informed of his departure for Georgia, the father applied to the German Ministry of Justice and requested that the child be deported without permission.
According to the Young Lawyers, in October 2020, a woman filed a lawsuit in a Georgian court, requesting that Georgia be designated as the child's place of residence before she reaches adulthood. At the same time, he applied to the State Care and Victims Assistance Agency with a request to restrict his father's right. The named cases were suspended because the man applied to the Ministry of Justice of Georgia, which is the central body in the case, requesting the return of the illegally displaced and detained juvenile to the German Federal Republic.
According to the Code of Civil Procedure of Georgia, however, according to the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, a national court has the power to refuse the return of a child allegedly unlawfully displaced or illegally detained if: child age, physical condition and The possibility to consider his opinion, and he unequivocally refuses to return, and there is a serious risk that the return will endanger the child physically or psychologically or otherwise put him in an unbearable condition.As part of the litigation, the organization was able to make clear to the court the risks that would result in the child returning to Germany if he or she suffered physical and psychological suffering. The organization, due to the sensitivity of the case, refrains from naming the facts of the violence, as well as referring to the appropriate evidence, thus convincing the court that the child could be threatened with all forms of violence.
For reference: "The civil aspects of the international abduction of children" under the 1980 Hague Convention, the dispute is the second case in the organization's proceedings. At the appellate stage, the case was heard by Judges Natalia Nazgaidze (Chairman), Eka Zarnadze and Maia Sulkhanishvili, and at the Tbilisi City Court by Judge Lela Tsanava. The organization defended the legitimate interests of the mother, a Georgian citizen named as a defendant.
