RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – The American father of a boy at the centre of a Brazil-US custody dispute made an emotional appeal to be reunited with his son yesterday, calling the situation “cruel, tragic and sad.”

A Brazilian Supreme Court judge blocked the return of 9-year-old Sean Goldman to the United States on Thursday, saying the boy’s own will should be taken into account in order to resolve the long-running custody dispute that has reached top government levels.

New Jersey resident David Goldman had flown to Brazil on Thursday after another Brazilian federal court ruled that Sean must be handed over to US authorities within 48 hours, giving him hope that the five-year-long saga might finally be over.

“I’m on my knees, begging for my son to come home, begging for justice,” Goldman told reporters outside a Rio de Janeiro hotel. “Why is it so hard? Why?”

The United States said yesterday it was disappointed with the Supreme Court judge’s ruling, saying the delay in returning Sean risked damaging his emotional health.

In a statement, the US Embassy in Brazil said that The Hague Convention aimed at curbing child abductions that both countries have signed called for the immediate return of abducted children to minimize the human and social costs.

Goldman has been fighting for custody of Sean since his then-wife took the boy on vacation to her native Brazil in 2004, then divorced him and stayed there in what Goldman and the US government call a clear case of child abduction.

The mother remarried but died last year. Her family and second husband have sought to keep the boy in Brazil.
The family says that Sean wants to stay in Brazil and argued in their latest petition to the Supreme Court that the boy’s own statements should be taken into consideration.

Supreme Court judge Marco Aurelio Mello agreed with them and the case is now on hold until at least February. Lawyers with experience of child abduction cases under The Hague law say that a child’s will is normally given little weight if the child is under the age of 12.