Friday 3 April 2009

Madonna to appeal for Mercy!

....I like this headline, I think it is worthy of a Sun sub-editor :-) .

Well you have all probably heard the news by now, a Malawian Judge has turned down Madonna's plea to adopt Mercy James, the Malawian baby girl.

Madonna had hopped over to Malawi to pick up a baby sister for her son David Banda (also from Malawi) and things seemed to be going according to plan. There was the expected outrage from civil groups both in Malawi and abroad, but nothing she hadn't dealt with before. The Malawian government seemed happy with the whole arrangement, so what was there to worry about?

Or so it seemed, then enter Judge Esme Chombo. It seems this esteemed member of Malawian judiciary wasn't with the plan. The Judge turned down Madonna's application saying

"It is necessary that we look beyond the petitioner ... and consider the consequences of opening the doors too wide, by removing the very safeguard that is supposed to protect our children, the courts ... could actually facilitate trafficking of children by some unscrupulous individuals."


Chombo said while other foreigners have adopted children from Malawi, but the only case in which some residency requirement was waived was Madonna's when she took David Banda out of the Malawi in 2006 before the adoption was finalized in 2008.

The battle is not over as Madonna is allowed an appeal, and an appeal is just what she intends as her Malawian lawyer Alan Chinula has already filed notice to appeal for Mercy.

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