The kids to stay with Japanese Mother: SC
At present, Nakano Erico is staying with her two daughters at a residential hotel at Gulshan in the capital
The Appellate Division on Sunday directed handing over the custody of the two Japanese kids to their mother Nakano Erico for the next three months, staying a High Court order to keep the children under the custody of their Bangladeshi father Imran Sharif.
The court also directed the authorities concerned to settle the case, filed by Imran Sharif with the family court of Dhaka, within three months.
The court said till the disposal of the case in the family court, the two daughters, aged 11 and seven, will live with their mother Nakano Erico and she cannot leave the country with the kids. Imran Sharif will be allowed to meet the children.
Disposing of an appeal of Nakano Erico, a six-member appellate division bench led by Chief Justice Hasan Foez Siddique passed the order.
According to the lawyers, Nakano Erico is staying with two children in a residential hotel in Gulshan of the capital.
Earlier, on 21 November last year, the HC directed that the two Japan-born children stay with their father Imran Sharif, a Bangladesh-born US citizen.
But Erico will be allowed to stay at least 10 days with her daughters every three months, the HC verdict said.
The HC said that Imran will bear all expenses for Erico needed for accommodation, food, and travel, to and from Japan, three times a year.
On 5 December last year, Japanese citizen Nakano Erico appealed against the HC verdict.
Erico, 48, a doctor by profession in Japan, and Imran, 58, got married in 2008 under Japanese law and had three daughters in their 12 years of conjugal life.
According to Erico's lawyer Shishir Monir, all three daughters were students at a school in Tokyo. On 18 January 2021, Imran filed for divorce from Erico and then on 21 January, he approached the school authorities to take his elder daughter away. But the school authorities rejected his plea since the mother did not agree to that.
Then, one day, Imran picked up his two daughters from the bus stop when they were returning home by the school bus, and took them to a rented home.
On 9 February 2021, Imran came to Bangladesh via Dubai with his two daughters, according to his lawyer.
On 19 August, the Japanese mother came to Dhaka and filed a writ petition with the HC seeking custody of her two daughters.
