Local family involved in irregular adoption case

by Staff Reporter
A PRIEST and three lawyers may be involved in an allegedly illegal adoption case which saw five children from Nicaragua given to families in the Balearics in 1998. Nicaraguan District Attorney Freddy Arana explained that the alleged illegal adoption occurred at the end of 1998, in the devastating wake of hurricane “Mitch”. It came to public notice because two weeks ago, the children's father condemned the handover as being “irregular”, in spite of the fact that his wife gave up the youngsters voluntarily believing it to be “in their best interests”. The case in question concerned five children belonging to a family from the area of Quezalguaque, some 120 kilometres to the east of Managua.
Arana confirmed that the National Police will hand over to him, “within the next few hours”, the conclusions of investigations that have been going on for two weeks. He said he would have to examine the police report “with a great deal of care” because it involves various people, some of them foreigners of good repute. Before bringing criminal charges, Arana said he would have to “evaluate the presumption of innocence”. He verifed a local press version of the story that “a Catholic priest, a magistrate and two lawyers, amongst others, participated in this case”, all of them Nicaraguan by nationality. The Press withheld the name of the priest pending legal action on the part of the District Attorney. The priest was described as “a much-loved person, advanced in years, who has given many years of service in Quezalguaque”.