The "illegal adoption" case returned to civil proceedings

Tahiti, October 20, 2021 – After the acquittal at first instance and then on appeal of a man prosecuted for having falsified an acknowledgment of paternity with a view to adopting a little girl, the family affairs judge of Papeete canceled this recognition on September 13 on the grounds that the person concerned had wanted to "escape the usual procedures for adoption" . His lawyer appealed this decision. The child remains placed in the nursery.

New twist in the case of attempted adoption outside of any legal framework which had hit the headlines in 2020 before leading, last March, to the release of two couples before the Papeete Court of Appeal. The former was then accused of having adopted the granddaughter of the latter, through a false acknowledgment of paternity. If the criminal court and then the court of appeal had considered that no offense had been committed by the defendants, the family affairs judge of Papeete nevertheless canceled on September 13 the recognition of paternity made by one of the two "adoptive" fathers.

Taking care to recall in its decision that the Papeete Court of Appeal had confirmed the acquittal of the proceedings for "forgery and use of forgery" - because the fraudulent recognition of a child did not exactly constitute a "forgery" in terms of criminal – the family affairs judge believes that it is different on the civil level. In the judgment, she affirms that the adoptive father who had recognized the child at birth "wanted to escape the usual procedures in matters of adoption or more locally of delegation of parental authority, which in addition to the search for the persistence of the agreement of the two biological parents, is also subject to the control of the family affairs judge who must The magistrate therefore notes that "paternal recognition of the child necessarily defeated this control and also deprived the biological parents of retracting in the aftermath of the birth" of the little girl and that, therefore, this recognition had indeed been "made in fraud of law".

The "adoptive" father appeals

In support of this analysis, the family court judge therefore canceled the recognition of paternity made by one of the adoptive fathers. But the case is not yet over, since the latter's lawyer has appealed the decision of the family court judge and a hearing will be held in November before the Court of Appeal. On the criminal level, the public prosecutor's office appealed to the Court of Cassation to challenge the acquittal, but the Parisian court has not yet rendered its decision. The little girl, who has just turned one, remains placed in the nursery.

Written by Garance Colbert on Wednesday October 20, 2021 at 6:38 p.m. | Read 2558 times

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