Post date: Mar 10, 2013 6:12:35 PM
An attorney for French journalist Maude Versini says she will continue to battle for the return of her three children.
TOLUCA, MEXICO STATE, MEXICO (MARCH 08, 2013)(REUTERS) - A lawyer representing French journalist Maude Versini on Friday (March 08) said she would continue to fight a custody battle involving her three children with her ex-husband, the former governor of the State of Mexico, Arturo Montiel.
Versini, Paris Match's former correspondent in Mexico, was married to Montiel on June 23, 2002 and divorced in France on November 29, 2007. Versini returned toFrance shortly after the divorce and re-married in 2009During their marriage, Versini and Montiel had three children, two of whom are now eight years old, and a third who is seven.
According to a French consulate news release from January 2012, the children were supposed to have returned to France by January 2, 2012 after having visited Montiel in Mexico on December 17, 2011.
A Mexican court in the town of Metepec granted Montiel custody of the children on December 20, 2011, and legal battles between Versini and Montiel began in March 2012, when Versini appealed and was granted custody of the children in May of that year by a Mexican court in the town of Lerma. The verdict was upheld in a state appeals court in July of that year, but Montiel's attorneys appealed again in August. Since then, the final, federal appeal has been repeatedly delayed, most recently on March 4.
On Monday, the court will decide whether Montiel's latest appeal proceeds or not.
Marissa Mosso Celaya, an attorney representing Versini, said that the appeals were an attempt to draw out the litigation.
"The appeal for relief is for effects pursuant. It is to present evidence. If it favours him, it goes back to previous judicial processes. It does not mean that the children are ordered to remain here. Additionally, on two previous occasions, it has been ordered that they be returned. Basically, it means it will take more time. This long, long attempt to legalize an illegal situation, an illegal retention, when one thinks of the children, this should be over," he said.
Even if the appeal does not proceed, Versini's attorneys will need to wait for 10 days before the children can be returned to allow Montiel's legal team to appeal again.
Mosso said the case should be litigated in France, where the children resided with Versini after the divorce.
"Clearly this is an illegal retention of minors. Clearly. The fact that he is using the system we have to delay the process is something else. But yes, it's an illegal retention, to claim the custody of the minors here in Mexico when it should be litigated in France, which is where the children reside. A moment will come when he (Montiel) won't have any more outlets and will have to return his children. The bad thing is that as time passes, it is more harmful to the children," she said.
"We have tried to establish a sort of dialogue to see how this can be fixed. It's impossible that what he wants is for the children to never see their mother again. We have always tried to come to an agreement, a deal, anything, so that this does not continue, but he has never been willing to do that," she added.
Eduardo Heredia, Montiel's lawyer in Mexico, declined to comment on his client's behalf, saying he was not authorized to speak on the trial.
Montiel - a political mentor and distant relative of President Enrique Pena Nieto - served as governor of Mexico State from 1999 until 2005.