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A Singaporean woman, embroiled in a bitter child-custody battle with her American ex-husband, was arrested when she landed at Los Angeles Airport last week.
She had been on Interpol’s wanted list for allegedly kidnapping her twin sons, based on a warrant issued by a California court. She now faces contempt of court charges.
The warrant was issued after she took her sons out of the United States in August 2009 without the court’s approval.
The couple were in the midst of custody and access hearings at the time. Their 10-year-old marriage had been annulled in California.
The parents cannot be named to protect the children, who are now 11 years old. The twins were born in Singapore and hold both Singapore and US passports.
Tests have shown that the ex-husband, a senior executive in his early 50s, is not the boys’ biological father. He is a US citizen and Singapore permanent resident.
After the 45-year-old woman fled the US with her sons, her ex-husband went to court in California and was awarded sole custody.
In Singapore, she went to court to try and resist the California court’s order to return the twins to the US, but failed.
A district court ruled earlier this year that she was in contempt of the California court order and gave her two weeks to send the boys back to the US.
In March, before the twins left in tears, she told The Straits Times they did not want her to go with them because it would break their hearts to see her handcuffed upon landing.
It is understood that the mother had been distraught since the twins returned to California with her ex-husband, and decided to go to the US. She expected to be detained on landing there.
She left Singapore last week intending to attend a family court hearing on Monday, in order not to jeopardise her rights to the children.
That hearing has been postponed while security arrangements are being worked out so she can go to the family court from the detention centre where she is being held.
Her arrest and detention by Homeland Security officials will complicate her battle to obtain access and control of the twins.
As she was classified as an Interpol-listed fugitive, her prospects for bail are dim, and she could remain behind bars for some time.
She could face additional woes, given that her ex-husband, in an e-mail to The Straits Times in April, revealed he had reported her to the Department of Children and Family Services in California for child abuse, citing an article which said post-divorce parental abduction is a serious form of child abuse.
“The children are doing great in school by all accounts. We have gone skiing, played tennis, golf, ping-pong, basketball, swimming, etc, that were put on hold due to the abduction by her,” he had added then.
Last Wednesday, he posted a letter on a US-based blog addressed to Singapore Ambassador Chan Heng Chee, notifying her of his ex-wife’s arrest for kidnapping, and telling the Singapore authorities not to issue any travel documents for her or the twins.
The mother’s return to the US and her arrest come in the wake of an appeal by her lawyer, Mr Raymond Yeo, last month in the High Court against the district judge’s order to send the twins to the US. Lawyer Foo Say Tun represented her former husband.
Justice Andrew Ang made no order, noting that as the twins had returned to the US, there was “little point” in pursuing the appeal.
But he made several observations about the earlier proceedings before the district judge.
He said the district judge was not wrong to have had regard to the fact there was a US court order giving sole physical and legal custody to the father.
But while it was not for the Singapore court to question that court order, it should be noted that the order was under appeal, he added.
He said the district judge “should have also considered whether or not the children would be at grave risk of physical or psychological harm or would be placed in an intolerable situation if an order for their return was to be made”.
Justice Ang made clear that deferring to the US court and giving friendly recognition to the laws of another country could not outweigh the interests of the children.
“In deciding whether or not to grant a summary order for the return of the children, the court must necessarily consider all the facts and circumstances of the case discoverable from affidavits or other evidence filed by the parents or other relevant parties.
“The children’s objections may also be taken into account where they are regarded as having attained sufficient maturity,” said Justice Ang.
He said such probes are not unique to proceedings under the Hague Convention – which provides for the return of abducted children to their original dwelling – but apply to common law too.
