Congressman Chris Smith arrived in Brazil today. Final expected votes of the year were cast on the House floor last night, after which Smith, a Senior Member of Congress, departed for Dulles International. Today he met with U.S. State Department officials and David Goldman, who also took a flight last night to Brazil.

  A unanimous ruling by the Brazilian Federal Regional Tribunal court Wednesday paves the way for the prompt return of Sean Goldman, now 9, back to his home in New Jersey. The Court ordered that Sean must be turned over to his father on Friday at the U.S. consulate in Rio de Janiero.

  “We are happy with this ruling and the decision to send Sean home,” said Smith, a 30-year Member of Congress and a Senior Member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. “I am cautiously optimistic.  Everyday he stays in a kidnapped state is another day of psychological harm.”

  Closing in on six years since Sean was unlawfully abducted from the Monmouth County, N.J. home where he resided, the ruling recognizes he belongs with his biological father in New Jersey. Sean’s mother, who had abducted him to live in Brazil in 2004 without David Goldman’s consent, later died, leaving Sean with her second husband.

  Smith urged the family of the second husband, Paulo Lins e Silva, an influential Rio de Janeiro lawyer, not to engage in another legal delaying tactic to prolong the reunion between father and son.

  Smith said the U.S. Congress has spoken loud and clear in support of Sean Goldman, referencing H. Res. 125 in which the House of Representatives called on Brazil to fulfill its international obligations and send Sean home.

  Smith noted that three court-appointed Brazilian psychologists determined earlier this year that Sean is being psychologically harmed by the abductors.

  Reports on “Compliance with the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction” stated that Brazil demonstrated a “pattern of non-compliance” due to judicial performance in 2007 and 2008.

  Sean Goldman was born in New Jersey and was abducted at four years old when his mother, a Brazilian native, left the U.S. on a supposed vacation to Brazil. Immediately upon arriving in Brazil she declared to her husband, David Goldman, her intention—without a lawful custodial agreement—not to return to the United States with their child. She later remarried, and died during childbirth in 2008. Sean has been held by her second husband, a prominent lawyer from a powerful family who is waging a court battle to block Sean from returning to his father.

  Under the provisions of The Hague Convention, children who are wrongfully taken by one parent must be immediately restored to their previous living arrangement within six weeks. If custody has not yet been determined, the proper court in the country of habitual residence will determine custody. The Sean Goldman case was bogged down in Brazilian courts for four years before David was even permitted to visit his son. Only in February 2009, with Smith at his side in Brazil demanding justice from Brazilian judges and government officials, was a visitation order enforced.

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