CEDH · CASELAW;CLIN;ENG — 12 janvier 2010

.s3ABFC313 { font-size:10pt } .sEB86A30B { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:14pt; page-break-after:avoid } .sBB9EE52A { font-family:Arial } .sA241FE93 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:18pt; text-align:justify; page-break-after:avoid; border-bottom:0.75pt solid #000000; padding-bottom:1pt } .s2EF62ED2 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; font-size:12pt } .s4DDA3AA3 { font-family:Arial; font-weight:bold; font-style:italic } .s29100277 { font-family:Arial; font-weight:bold } .s32563E28 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt } .s8F2B0B1B { margin-top:12pt; margin-bottom:12pt; page-break-after:avoid; font-size:12pt } .s9FF10068 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:12pt } .sA36B60A1 { font-family:Arial; font-style:italic } .s5F48796F { margin-top:12pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:justify } .s5CB9E8AB { margin-top:12pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:justify; border-bottom:1pt solid #000000; padding-bottom:1pt } .sDF790F1E { margin-top:12pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:center } .s7ED160F0 { text-decoration:none } .s3DC36BA9 { font-family:Arial; text-decoration:underline; color:#0069d6 } Information Note on the Court’s case-law No. 126 January 2010 Cosac v. Romania (communicated case) - 28129/05   Article 8 Article 8-1 Respect for family life Refusal to grant custody of child to father because he was member of a religious sect: communicated   The applicants are father and daughter. In 2003 a district court granted the first applicant and his wife a divorce. It awarded custody of the couple’s daughter, then aged twelve, to her mother. The judgment became final, but the girl refused to live with her mother. In 2004 the first applicant, as his daughter’s legal representative, made an urgent application for sole custody. He claimed that his daughter had been assaulted by her mother and the latter’s partner and had left their home and moved in with him. The district court rejected the application as ill-founded. The first applicant lodged a fresh application for custody, referring to the threat posed to the child’s development by living with her mother, and produced copies of several forensic medical certificates recording injuries she had allegedly sustained. In 2004 the district court rejected his application, observing that the mere fact that the child wished to live with her father was not sufficient reason to transfer custody. In 2005 the second applicant herself applied to have custody awarded to her father, arguing that her mother’s behaviour made it impossible to live with her and her partner. The district court awarded sole custody to the first applicant, but that decision was overturned on appeal on the grounds that it was not in the child’s best interests to live under the influence of her father, who suffered from depression and belonged to a religious sect known as “The prophesies of Sundar Singh” which was not recognised by the Orthodox Church. Communicated under Article 8 in conjunction with Article   14.   © Council of Europe/European Court of Human Rights This summary by the Registry does not bind the Court. Click here for the Case-Law Information Notes