The parties are parents to 2 teenage, high-school children, who were both born in Belgium and had lived their entire lives in Belgium until July 2022, at which time they traveled to Washington State to spend time with their father, with a scheduled return date and return ticket for August 16, 2022. When the Respondent father retained the children, the Petitioner mother in Belgium sought their return under the Abduction Convention, filing a return petition in the federal courts in Washington State on November 9, 2022. The court conducted an evidentiary hearing, and both children testified under oath.

The self-represented Respondent’s only argument approximated that of a grave risk (or at least the court analyzed whether the assertions made by Respondent were sufficient to make out a grave risk exception). He argued that the “children are being abused and tortured in Petitioner’s care.” “Respondent also argues that the children are happy in Washington, have iPhones with which they can communicate with the Petitioner regularly, attend a highly-ranked Washington high school, and can learn English in Washington – as opposed to the French and Dutch that Respondent claims are taught in Belgian schools.” A footnote by the court stated, “[f]or example, Respondent asserts, ‘In our African custody, when a woman remarries she cannot bring the children, especially the young girls, to her new husband unless she is totally crazy, because they are always victims of rape and sexual slavery from her new husband.'” [Petitioner is remarried]. The children’s testimony showed “that they had no objections to returning to Belgium and had no safety concerns about going back to their mother’s home.'” Therefore, the court ordered the children returned, with the Respondent “ordered to deliver all of [the children’s] belongings to the office of Petitioner’s counsel … by December 21, 2022 at 5:00 p.m.” Respondent filed an appeal on December 28, 2022.