典型的なケース。
父親が、母親を虐待。
裁判所も父親と子供の面会を制限。
しかし、父親から母親への攻撃は続く。
母親は、国に子供を連れて逃げる。
父親は、母親を誘拐犯として犯罪者にしたてあげる。
そして、数年後。
子供は、父親のもとに。
母親は、誘拐犯として刑務所に。
母親は、「あの危険な父親のもとに子供が行くことになるなんて・・・・」
父親は、裁判所に「子供が帰ってきたら、母親を刑務所に入れないで欲しい」と訴える。（というか、そういう姿勢をとるだけだが・・・子供が見ているわけですから）
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あなたは、どう判断しますか？
母親が、悪者で、ウソを並び立てて、父親を虐待者に仕立て上げた。
それとも、父親は、子供を使って母親に復讐した。
子供のことを本当に考えているのは、どちらでしょう。
裁判所の決定は、正しいのでしょうか。
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BEAVER — Talha Harcar got what he wanted Friday: A reunion with his son, who was abducted by his mother and taken from Beaver County to Turkey nearly four years ago.
But the reunion was anything but joyous. The boy’s mother, Tijen Harcar, was placed in the Beaver County Jail for up to six months because she had defied several court rulings ordering her to return 11-year-old Taha M. Harcar to Beaver County.
If Tijen Harcar meets certain conditions, she could be freed from jail within the next couple days.
“Now I feel guilty,” Talha Harcar said, moments before he grasped his son in a long-overdue hug and kiss. “How can I explain to my son that his mother is in jail? I didn’t want this to happen. If I had known this, I would have canceled the whole case.”
Friday’s rulings by Beaver County Judge Kim Tesla mean that for the foreseeable future, Taha will be living with his father in Center Township, and attending classes at a Central Valley elementary school.
It’s a far cry from how much time Talha Harcar has gotten with his son in the last four years: Just one brief visit in Turkey most of which his son slept through.
There have been hundreds of missed phone calls, Talha Harcar said. There have been missed holidays, several Christmases, Father’s Days, and other milestones gone by.
The case of the Harcars brings to mind another case that drew international attention. In late December, David Goldman of New Jersey was reunited with his 9-year-old son, Sean, who was taken to Brazil by his mother in 2004.
Bruna Bianchi divorced Goldman and remarried in Brazil, but died in 2008. Sean’s stepfather refused to return him to his natural father.
It took months of court actions in the United States and Brazil before Brazil’s chief justice upheld a lower court ruling ordering the stepfather to return Sean to David Goldman.
One of the concerns raised during that custody dispute was how Sean Goldman would adjust to living with a father he had spent just a handful of brief visits with since 2004.
That’s also a concern for Taha Harcar.
Talha Harcar said that two weeks ago, after Tijen Harcar brought her son back to the area awaiting a court hearing, he and his son spent a couple hours at an arcade at the Beaver Valley Mall in Center Township.
Talha said his son said, “Dad, I’m playing with you, but that doesn’t mean I am going to stay with you.”
A BROKEN FAMILY
Talha and Tijen Harcar are natives of the Republic of Turkey. They immigrated to Canada, and on Sept. 28, 1999, Taha was born. About two years later, the family moved to Beaver County, where both Harcars were professors at the Penn State-Beaver campus in Center Township. During the summers, the Harcars went back to Turkey.
Talha Harcar said he’s not quite sure what went wrong with his marriage, but in March 2006, Tijen filed a custody complaint in Beaver County Court.
As part of the court proceedings Tijen Harcar made allegations of domestic abuse against Talha Harcar.
That May, Beaver County Judge Deborah Kunselman awarded Tijen Harcar primary custody, with Talha Harcar getting several days of visitation a month.
As part of that order, according to court records, if one of the parents wanted to move out of Beaver County, he or she had to get court approval unless the other parent agreed.
The following month, the court agreed that Tijen Harcar could take her son on vacation in Turkey beginning June 12, but both had to return on Aug. 18.
Once in Turkey, Tijen Harcar filed for divorce and custody of Taha and refused to return to Beaver County, saying that trial court in Turkey now had jurisdiction over the custody dispute. Tijen Harcar enrolled Taha in school there, and she became an associate professor there.
In 2006, Judge George James ordered Tijen Harcar to return the boy to Beaver County; she again refused. Even after 2008 court proceedings before Tesla in which Tijen Harcar participated by phone, she refused to return Taha to the United States.
Even the Pennsylvania Superior Court and Turkey Supreme Court chimed in within the past couple of years, saying Tijen Harcar was in contempt of court. The Turkish courts cited the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, which governs how children who have been abducted should be returned.
In the case of the Harcars, according to an October, 2008 Turkish court order, “no serious risk that would expose the minor to any physical or psychological or any other threat on (Taha’s) return was detected.”
REUNION
On Friday, Tijen and Talha Harcar sat on opposite sides of Judge Tesla’s courtroom, Tijen Harcar flanked by defense attorney Robert Banks, and Talha Harcar by his attorney, Joseph Spratt.
Taha Harcar was sitting in a nearby conference room, not hearing the arguments over his fate.
Talha Harcar, still a Penn State professor, wept as he told Tesla that he didn’t want his ex-wife to go to jail.
“She has been my wife for years,” Harcar said.
“I just want to see my son. I don’t want to hurt anybody.”
But it was obvious that he was afraid that his hopes would be dashed once again. He told Tesla that his ex-wife had already bought plane tickets for her and her son to return to Turkey on Feb. 5.
Also, Tijen Harcar spoke of getting another teaching job, this one that would take her and her son to Japan for a year beginning in April.
Friday’s hearing wasn’t to modify the custody order — which Tesla said Tijen Harcar had “willfully” and “intentionally” ignored had ignored since 2006 — but to decide what, if any sanctions should be levied against Tijen for her repeated refusals to return to Beaver County.
Tijen Harcar apologized for her actions, saying she hadn’t intended to stay in Turkey.
“I was threatened by this marriage,” Tijen Harcar said. “I was really scared. I didn’t know what to do.
“I just wanted to create a safe environment for my son. I wanted to start from scratch.”
By Talha Harcar’s and Spratt’s account, he had missed 260 days of visitation with his son since his ex-wife took the boy to Turkey.
Banks urged Tesla to allow Tijen and Taha Harcar to go to Japan, saying that Talha Harcar could make up the lost visitation time during summers, and that it was too good an opportunity for Taha to miss.
But Tesla said that only meant that Tijen Harcar wanted to ignore the court order that gave Talha Harcar specific visitation rights.
And when Banks urged Tesla to “think of the best interests of the child,” Tesla responded that Taha was in a situation that his mother created.
In closing arguments, an obviously agitated Spratt said, “I’m about ready to lose it,” and urged Tesla to jail Tijen Harcar for keeping the boy away from his father, despite Talha’s pleas to keep his ex-wife out of jail.
“You do what you gotta do,” Spratt said, and Tesla responded that he would “do what justice requires.”
As Tijen Harcar sat quietly, Tesla told her she was going to jail for six months because of her violation of the court orders.
He said that if she fulfilled several conditions, including paying her ex-husband nearly $10,000 in attorney’s fees, enrolling in parenting classes, and turning over Taha’s school and medical records, she could be released early.
Also, Tijen Harcar surrendered her son’s passport, which Spratt will keep.
“She holds the keys to her own jail cell,” Tesla said moments before two Beaver County deputy sheriffs handcuffed Tijen Harcar and led her from the courtroom.
Tesla also issued a temporary order granting custody of Taha to his father, who said he’ll enroll the boy in school here. Either of the Harcars could still petition the court to modify the initial custody order that Tijen Harcar violated.
A stricken Talha Harcar, before he took his son aside to talk to him, vowed that he would do anything he could to get his ex-wife out of jail, hoping that would occur within a day or two.
“I didn’t have any other choice,” Talha Harcar said, his eyes brimming with tears.
Tijen Harcar remained in jail Saturday night.
日本のマスコミの方へ：
この方たちが日本にきたら、ぜひ、取材してくださいな。