The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in Bangladesh on Sunday ruled that Bangladeshi father brought two siblings to Bangladesh on February 18 in 2021 illegally without the consent of their Japanese mother and also kept them in his custody illegally.  

The Appellate Division also directed the assistant judge of the Second Additional Court and Family Court in Dhaka to finish a family suit filed by the father, Imran Sharif, in Bangladesh in February 2021 seeking custody of the two siblings of two estranged couple, within three months.

The Appellate Division also directed the two minors — Nakano Jasmin Malika popularly known as Jasmin Malika Sharif, 12, and Nakano Liala Lina popularly known as Liala Lina Sharif, 10, to stay in the custody of their mother, Eriko Nakano, until the family court settles the dispute over their custody.

The apex court also scrapped a verdict delivered by the High Court on November 21, 2021 giving the custody of the two minor girls to their father permanently, and allowing the mother Nakano the right to visit the children in Bangladesh thrice a year.

A five-judge bench chaired by chief justice Hasan Foez Siddique gave the landmark decision after disposing of an appeal filed by the mother challenging the High Court’s verdict.

The High Court gave the verdict keeping pending a writ petition filed by the mother on August 18, 2021 challenging the legality of the father’s bringing the children to Bangladesh.  

The father along with the two minors returned to Bangladesh from Japan on February 18, 2021, pending hearings of a family suit with the Japanese court over the custody of the children and the process of divorce prayed by Eriko Nakano, the mother’s lawyer Shishir Manir told New Age.  

Shishir said that the family court in Japan gave the custody of the two daughters to their mother.

Eriko, an oncologist by profession, travelled from Japan to Dhaka on July 18, 2021 to respond to a family suit that on February 18 allowed the father to keep the children in his custody until the mother submitted her explanation in the case filed by the father returning to Bangladesh.

She was allowed to see her children for a moment on July 27, 2021 at a place where she was taken by husband into a car blind-folded on the way and returned to the place to hide the address of their children.

The mom travelled to Bangladesh leaving her 7-year old daughter in Japan.

Eriko and Imran, an IT expert, got married in the USA on July 11, 2008, and the mom applied for divorce on January 18, 2021, when they were in Japan.

Eriko converted to Islam before the marriage and the couple had dispute over religion affairs and sharing of property, according to Sharif’s lawyer Fawzia Karim.  

The couple gave birth to their first baby in 2010 and second baby in 2011 and the third one in 2014.

Senior lawyers Ajmalul Hossain and Ahsanul Karim, and Shishir Manir appeared for the mother while the father was represented by senior lawyer Fida M Kamal, and lawyers Aneek R Hoque and Fawzia Karim in Appellate Division.