Elizabeth Hinds, the daughter-in-law of Prime Minister Samuel Hinds, has requested asylum in the United States and is seeking to regain her three-year-old son after a court granted custody to his father—a custody battle that prompted the PM’s wife last evening to threaten legal action against any attempt to distort the case or discredit her family.
The Superior Court of Pennsylvania last Thursday granted Elizabeth Hinds a temporary emergency stay of the order that awarded physical custody of the child to her husband, Samuel Nikolai Hinds. A judge had awarded interim custody to him, based on an application by him and former first lady Yvonne Hinds, who released a statement yesterday saying that the judge did not find her daughter-in-law’s testimony to be “credible” and reaffirmed the custody order.
However, Elizabeth Hinds applied for the emergency stay on the judge’s order, saying she feared that the child would have been removed and be permanently separated from her by her husband and her mother-in-law, who are plaintiffs in the case. The order was made although the woman had testified that she was physically abused by her husband, her lawyer said in an appeal motion, adding that she also provided evidence that raised doubts about his fitness as a parent. She is contending that with her husband gaining physical custody, her rights to the child would be severed unless she returns to Guyana, which she is afraid of doing.
“The trial judge erred in not considering the fact that the paternal grandfather of the child is a high ranking member of the government of Guyana and would likely wield unfair influence in a court proceeding in that country given the allegations of corruption made by [Elizabeth Hinds]. It is highly unlikely that [she] will be able to secure a fair and impartial hearing on this matter in the home country,” a statement of complaint submitted in the application to the Superior Court by the woman’s lawyer, Marcia Binder Ibrahim, said. It was also noted that although she is a citizen of Guyana, Elizabeth Hinds does not intend to return here as she requested political asylum in the United States.
The Superior Court later granted the stay of the custody award on a temporary basis, while directing that the plaintiffs to file an answer on or before this Wednesday.
Ibrahim told Stabroek News that while the emergency stay had been granted to her client, authorities confirmed that the child departed the jurisdiction. As a result, Ibrahim said she planned to submit motions for orders for the child’s return and an inquiry into why he was allowed to leave the jurisdiction. She, however, acknowledged that it was unclear whether the child was removed before or after the stay was granted by the Superior Court.
‘Malicious
information’
Yvonne Hinds released a statement on the case last evening, noting that there had been a lot of “misleading, false and malicious information, being peddled (by persons with their own agenda)” about her involvement in the case.
Her son, she explained, went to the USA on a student visa, while his wife’s status was that of a spouse of a student. But while he was due to return to Guyana after successfully completing his studies, the former first lady said, his wife refused. “…as a result my son filed for custody of his son, since it would not be in the best interest of the child to stay with a parent who is an illegal alien,” she explained, while noting that a judge later ruled in his favour, granting him temporary custody of the child.
According Yvonne Hinds, while the child should have been handed over to her son on October 11, her daughter-in-law disobeyed the court order and she was summoned on October 31 to show why she was in contempt of the judge’s order. At the end of the hearing, the judge did not find Elizabeth Hinds’ testimony “credible,” and therefore reaffirmed the earlier order, she said.
With the petition for return of the child granted, she added that her daughter-in-law was ordered by the judge to return the child immediately to his father, who was in the process of departing the US at the end of his period of study.
“Any attempt to distort the ruling of the court in this matter, to paint the judge’s orders otherwise, or to discredit my family will be pursued to the fullest extent of the law,” she warned, having noted that she returned home “un-hindered by the American authorities.”
‘Feared for his safety’
In her motion for the emergency stay of the order pending an appeal, Ibrahim noted an interim custody order had been granted by the judge, giving legal custody to both parents and primary physical custody to Samuel Nikolai Hinds, based on a complaint made by him and his mother. They had filed a petition for the return of the child, arguing that Elizabeth Hinds’ status would be that of an “illegal alien” in the United States, when her husband returned to Guyana. Their petition came after the woman failed to turn over the child, although Samuel Nikolai Hinds had been granted physical custody.
As a result, Ibrahim said, Elizabeth Hinds filed a motion to dismiss their complaint, saying that the lower court lacked jurisdiction under the Pennsylvania Rules of Civil Procedure and the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction And Enforcement Act (UCCJEA) to preside over the case. In granting the interim order, the lower court judge, however, dismissed Ibrahim’s objection without explanation, which prompted her application for the emergency stay of his order.
The child, who was born in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, had been residing in Monroe Country, Pennsylvania with his mother since August 18, 2011, Ibrahim said, while adding that in the previous 18 months, he had been residing in Guyana with his grandparents. She submitted that the child had been sent to Guyana because Elizabeth Hinds was “concerned about the conduct” of his father, “which put the child in jeopardy.” Ibrahim added that the child briefly returned to Pennsylvania in November, 2010, but was returned to Guyana in January this year, because his mother “feared for his safety due to the actions of his father.”
The lawyer for Samuel Nikolai Hinds and Yvonne Hinds, however, in their complaint, had said that both parents requested that the child’s grandparents raise him, “until they were monetarily and physically capable of raising the child on their own.”
The lawyer also noted that a judge dismissed an application by Elizabeth Hinds for an order for protection for her and her son at a Protection From Abuse (PFA) hearing.
