Daddy going to jail for fighting for custody of his son

[blairand cain]

I am not sure where or who to go to for assistance so at this stage I will try anything. We have exhausted our finances with Attorneys and ultimately we are still in the same situation.

My husband fought for the custody of his Unwanted son 9 years ago. His girlfriend did not want the baby and gave it up for adoption illegally. He fought the law to gain custody and in the interim tried to find his son who was taken to Malawi.

Out of sheer bad luck, one of the people assiting with the location of the baby decided to take the baby.

Timothy is my husbands son's name. He was returned to the illegal adoptive parents unharmed.

9 years later, court case after court case and financially drained, I sit with two beautiful boys one 7 years of age and our latest angel to arrive is 7 months old.

My husband was found guilty for conspiring to kidnap his unwanted son and sentenced to 4 years in prison. We have appealed the sentence as prison in South Africa is a death sentence.

If there is ANYONE out there who can please advise me, I would sincerely appreciate it.

Children without their Daddy's are very unhappy children...

Thanking you

Karen

[DecentDad]

Hello,

Sorry for all that y'all have been through.

If your husband is guilty, then I don't think you're going to have an easy time getting any support from many groups.  Conspiracy to kidnap children is a tough issue to rationalize.

If your husband is innocent, then he's been unfairly convicted through your legal system.  If your legal system isn't a fair one, the only suggestion I can think of is to try to pitch your story to an American news program (e.g., 60 Minutes, 20/20, Nightline).  Secondarily, perhaps a Montel Williams sort of show would be interested.  I know there are some South African news expose sorts of programs, but I don't know their names offhand.

The goal would be to get enough outrage among the public for your situation so that local officials may feel pressure to look into your case, discover that it was handled poorly, and perhaps work from within the system to help you.

Such an approach would work well in America because we have elected officials who are sensitive to desire for reelection, and they either avoid or resolve train wrecks when they see them coming.  Mass media forces them to resolve rather than avoid.

I don't know the dynamics of the South African political scene or judicial system, so I really can't assess if that same approach would be helpful to you.

Best wishes,
DD