Adoption outside the procedure: The reasons for the release
Tahiti, March 3, 2021 - After the unexpected general acquittal pronounced on February 25 by the criminal court against two couples in the context of an adoption carried out out of procedure, Tahiti Infos details and explains the reasons for the judgment.
On February 25, the Papeete Criminal Court released the biological parents of a little girl born on September 29 and the couple who had tried to adopt her by freeing themselves from the procedure. This decision had strongly reacted to public opinion in view, in particular, of the requisitions for firm prison taken by the public prosecutor during the hearing against three of the four accused.
Of the three offenses for which the four accused were prosecuted, as authors or accomplices, the criminal court began, in the reasons for its judgment of February 25, by addressing that of the “offense of provocation to abandonment”. of a child ”which was reproached to the adoptive couple. It emerged from the investigations carried out by the investigators that between September 16 and October 10, the two men had paid medical expenses (gynecological, dental), as well as amounts related to "food expenses" and shopping for. the start of the school year for a total amount of 114,000 Fcfp. Refuting any idea of ??a consent “provoked” by a “financial donation” or the “promise of some benefit”, the court considered on this point that “in any event, the nature of the expenses, exclusively related to food and accommodation of the biological family and to the health of the mother and the unborn child as well as their limited nature ” did not allow them to be regarded as “ undue material gain. ” He considered that these sums were intended only to participate “ in the preservation of health and to provide for the nutritional needs of the mother and of their children."
Full and complete agreement
On the fraud, that is to say the falsification of the act of early recognition and the birth certificate, the court affirmed that if it emerges from the investigation that one of the two members of the couple adopting had recognized the child of whom “he knew not to be the biological father” , the latter, by recognizing the little girl as his own, had pursued “no other goal than that of assuming the consequences of the bond of filiation thus created, in particular the obligation to provide for the maintenance and education of this child within the framework of the exercise of parental authority. ” The court also noted that this recognition was carried out with“The full and complete agreement of the biological father and the biological mother with regard to whom the maternal filiation remains established” and that therefore, this recognition did not “constitute a punishable forgery” .
Finally, on the offense of misappropriation of a minor accused of the adopting couple, the criminal court considered that since one of the two adopting fathers was the holder of parental authority because of “the state of the filiation bond created by its recognition voluntary paternity with regard to the child ” , he therefore had the right to have custody of the baby when her biological mother left the maternity hospital after childbirth.
The prosecution immediately appealed against the release pronounced on February 25, the case will quickly come before the court of appeal. The fate of the child, who has been placed in a nursery, will be determined by the children's judge.