Brazilian Supreme Court rejects appeals from Brazilian family in Sean case.
The family wanted the boy, Sean Goldman, to be heard in the custody proceedings. The case caused a national uproar in the 2000s and created an international legal conflict involving Brazil and the United States.
Deborah Zampier
Reporter from Agência Brasil
Brasilia – The Supreme Federal Court (STF) today (7) rejected appeals from the Brazilian family of the boy Sean Goldman for him to be heard in the process that discusses his custody. The case caused national commotion in the 2000s and created an international legal conflict involving Brazil and the United States.
Sean Goldman is the son of an American father and a Brazilian mother and was brought to Brazil in 2004 when his mother decided to separate from her partner. Although his biological father had filed a lawsuit in Brazilian courts seeking custody of the boy, the request was strengthened when Sean's mother died in 2008.
At the time, the Federal Regional Court of the 2nd Region (TRF2) accepted the biological father's request, ordering Sean's transfer to the United States. The Brazilian family filed appeals that reached the Supreme Federal Court (STF), where there was a conflict among the justices. Marco Aurélio granted an injunction to keep the boy in Brazil, but the then-president of the Supreme Court, Gilmar Mendes, overturned the decision. Sean was sent to the United States in December 2009.
In the cases judged today, the Brazilian family requested that the boy be heard in the custody proceedings, as this was directly related to his right to come and go. By majority vote, the justices understood that habeas corpus (a type of legal recourse that deals with the right to come and go) cannot be used to discuss family law, rejecting the requests.
At the end of the session, Justice Marco Aurélio, the only dissenting vote, said that the discussion of the Sean Goldman case is closed at the Supreme Federal Court (STF). The case's lawyer, Fernanda Figueiredo, said that although the STF rejected the appeals, the legal discussion regarding Sean's custody continues at the Superior Court of Justice (STJ). The court still has to rule on an appeal by the family against the decision of the Regional Federal Court of the 2nd Region (TRF2).
The lawyer also criticized, "from an ethical and moral standpoint," the participation of Minister Antonio Dias Toffoli in the trial. Toffoli was the Attorney General of the Union when the agency decided to intervene in the case, supporting the biological father's claim. Today, the minister cast one of the votes to overturn the Brazilian family's appeal.
Editing: Fabio Massalli