Child to be reunited with mom in Turkey - report

2012-09-24 18:31

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Johannesburg - A 5-year-old boy will soon be reunited with his mother in Turkey after his father fled to South Africa with the child more than a year ago, according to a report on Monday.

The Star newspaper reported that a court in Ankara had awarded the mother interim custody, pending the finalisation of divorce proceedings.

The father apparently did not return the child after a weekly visit in July last year.

Law enforcers were ordered to fetch the boy, but the neither the father nor the child could be located.

It was subsequently established that they had entered South Africa, although it is not known when.

A private investigator located the child and father in Pretoria, after the mother complained to Turkey's president.

The child was attending a pre-school in Hillcrest and the headmaster was informed of the situation.

According to the newspaper report, the North Gauteng High Court ordered last week that the school's secretary or its headmaster had to hand over the child to the South African authorities so he could be returned.

The SA Central Authority, which in terms of the Hague Convention, must assist with the safe return of children wrongfully removed or retained in a contracting state, had approached the court to have the boy returned to his mother.

- SAPA