After two weeks in the United States trying to meet her grandson, Sean Goldman – the boy who was kidnapped by his own mother at age 4 and taken to Brazil – Silvana Bianchi is back in Brazil where she arrived Easter night without having a chance to see or talk to the now 10-year-old kid.
“I am deeply disappointed.” she told Brazilian reporters. “It is a great cruelty to Sean and his family,” adding: “My grandmother’s heart is deeply saddened.”
Bianchi lamented the decision of the American justice and stated that she knew that the main responsible for the verdict was Sean’s father, David Goldman. whom se accused of reneging on a promise to her that he would allow her to see the grandson in the United States. “I think this was his personal decision,” she said.
Bianchi, visibly dejected, said she doesn’t intend to go back to the United States until she receives guarantees that she can see her grandson. A new hearing on the case will only happen May 7.
“Once again the human rights of this child are not being respected. I haven’t talked to him for 33 days and I am very concerned about his mental health. Why is he hiding the boy?,” she asked addressing Goldman.
Sean Goldman left Brazil after a prolonged legal battle. Then and now, the grandmother wants the boy to be heard so that he can decide with whom he wishes to stay.
Bianchi says that Goldman has taken away the two cell phones she had given him to keep in touch. She revealed that she talked five times with him but always after the father made the call and put the son on the line. She complains that Goldman has asked her to talk in English with the boy.
“We’re doing everything to see him as soon as possible. I’m dying with longing. I went there to try to hug my grandson and I had to leave with an empty hug. I wasn’t able to see Sean,” unburdened Bianchi.
Brazilian Bruna Bianchi Carneiro left Goldman for a supposed two-week holiday trip with her son to Brazil. They lived in the city of Titon Falls, New Jersey (USA). Arriving in Brazil Bruna decided the marriage was over and called Goldman to tell him she wouldn’t return to the United States.
Bruna remarried lawyer João Paulo Lins e Silva, but she ended up dying while giving birth to a baby daughter in 2008. Since then, David Goldman has been fighting for his son’s custody.
On Saturday, Sergio Tostes lawyer representing the boy’s maternal family, said he believes the New Jersey’s court decision to prevent Bianchi from meeting her grandson should hasten a decision by Brazil’s Supreme Court (STF) on the custody of the child.
“The decision of the court in New Jersey,” said Tostes, “does not comply with the Hague Convention, which says that the child’s interest must prevail over administrative, legislative and judicial actions. And provides for the child to be heard in court, as we have tried with the STF. We now hope that in the face of such an impediment to have contact with the family, the Supreme Court will decide the issue soon.”
Tostes also said that Bianchi received an email, which according to him was secretly sent by Sean who wrote he was living in the United States reluctantly and was very unhappy with the situation.