U.S. Mother Implores Swiss Government to Return Son Immediately
OJAI, California (July 21, 2014) – Jannah Sims, an American mother engaged in a five-year international custody battle for her Swiss-born son, Malik Andina, is seeking the support of the American public and media to compel the Swiss government to uphold its rulings awarding her full parental custody. Sims has started a petition on Change.org in hopes of gaining signatures to urge the court to serve justice and return Malik to her care at once.
“I trusted the Swiss judicial system to allow me to take my son home to America after I was awarded custody in 2008, and again when the ruling was upheld in my favor in 2012, but we are still separated,” said Sims. “While the courts proclaim legal authority to prolong this case, and thus my son’s suffering, separating mother and child over many years is morally unjust.”
The Swiss court has repeatedly failed to enforce its own rulings naming Sims as the custodial parent, most recently in January 2014, when an appeals judgment in her favor was suspended indefinitely without demonstrable cause.
Since this decision, regular communication between Malik and his mother has been illegally severed, and his annual summer trip to the U.S. to visit his mother and little sister, Sims’ child from a subsequent marriage and Malik’s only sibling, has been called off. The case now awaits review by a federal appeals court in Switzerland, and Sims does not know when she will be able to see her son again.
Under the direction of Malik’s father, whose family is politically and socially well-connected, Malik was assigned a Swiss attorney who will not discuss the case with Sims. It has been reported to Sims that the attorney is the father of Malik’s soccer mate, a conflict of interest that has not been called into question by the Swiss court.
Sims believes that prolonged legal proceedings set a dangerous precedent for international child custody cases. Because the case does not fall under the Hague Convention governing international child abductions, Sims has little power to help her son.
Referencing the high-profile case of David Goldman, the American father who fought for custody of his son for five years, Sims believes that public pressure is the most powerful way to get the court to uphold justice. She is asking the public to take swift action to sign her petition, which can be found at:
https://www.change.org/petitions/madam-ambassador-compel-the-swiss-courts-to-enforce-their-rulings-and-return-malik-to-his-mother-in-the-u-s-immediately
Contact:
Jannah Sims, justice4malik@gmail.com
American Embassy in Bern – Amb Levine — 7-14 Sims case
Ltr to Kennedy, Pettit & Namde – US State Dept. — 7-14 Sims Case
Ltr. to American Abroad Caucus Congressional member – with list of members
Mrs.Sims son is also a Swiss Citizen equally as much as he is a US Citizen. Malik was born in Switzerland, has always resided in Switzerland therefore it is his habitual residence, and he cannot legally be essentially deported from a country as he is a citizen. American mothers always tend to minimize the 2nd citizenship of their dual citizen children and insist that their US Citizenship trumps that of the foreign father. While I never heard of an African-American mother having a biracial dual citizen child and/or giving birth to a child in a foreign country, there is nothing unique about this case. When Mrs.Sims recieved custody of her son from Swiss courts, she was a long term resident of Switzerland and it was assumed she would remain there, however custodial parent or not, these same courts were not going to allow a Swiss born and well settled child to be permanently removed from the country for very obvious reasons. The courts did not accept her remarriage as a legitimate justification for attempting to abscond from Switzerland back to her native United States with the child, so ordered the immediate confiscation and cancellation of the boy’s two passports to insure he remained in Switzerland. This does not translate to holding a child as a hostage despite claims otherwise. This simply means that while custody remains with the mother, Mrs.Sims is restricted to exercising her Sole Custody only in Switzerland under the jurisdiction of Swiss courts, which makes perfect sense. Notice however that she was also awarded visitations to the United States periodically and regular access while Malik continued to reside in Switzerland under his father’s care. Switzerland is one of the least, if not the least corrupt countries on Earth and have a very fair judiciary system, which makes it impossible that the Swiss courts have suspended all access for no reason. This bitter and longrunning court proceedings have undoubtedly taken a great toll on the child, who most likely desires to remain at home in Switzerland, and access was suspended to protect his psychological stability as well as a growing risk he would be retained by his American mother in the United States as things continued not to go her way. Nowhere do I see any mention of Mrs.Sims returning to Switzerland to attempt to visit her son at his residence in the midst of all this drama. I am willing to bet that between Malik’s visitations to the United States, she did not once return to Switzerland to visit him and only wants to see him in the United States under her own terms. As old as the boy is now, a teenager, the best thing is to simply leave him alone and let him have a normal peaceful life already. I know he knows his mother loves and misses him, but he most likely also wonders why she will not come to see him and will not appreciate this media circus if ever finds his picture and life story plastered over the internet.
Aria, I hope you will take time and examine all the EVIDENCE on my website that SHOWS BEYOND ANY REASONABLE DOUBT that family courts are broken, and a cess-pool for unscrupulous lawyers. Your rhetoric is so TYPICAL of everything I have heard for the past decade. me cansa.