MALAWI: Judge adjourns Madonna adoption case to November 13

A judge in Malawi has adjourned a hearing into an application by child rights groups trying to block the adoption of a Malawian boy by pop star Madonna. Lawyers on Friday (October 27, 2006) said the case had been put back to November 13. Yohane Banda, father of one-year-old David, who was flown to London earlier this month to join the singer, went to the court in central Lilongwe, saying his presence was a symbolic protest against the legal moves to halt the adoption. David's father, Yohane Banda, said he still supports the singer's bid to take custody of his son. "I am concerned about what is happening to my child. It's because I do not know why the Human Rights people want my child to be brought back. If the child is brought back this will be bad for me and my family because we cannot raise him," Banda said outside the courthouse. David has spent most of his life in an orphanage with 500 other children although his father is alive. Madonna's Malawian lawyer Alan Chinula told Reuters the hearing had been adjourned for the judge to hear other parties involved. He made the comments after he and counsel for the rights groups met high court judge Andrew Nyirenda in his chambers. Neither of the two lawyers would give details of the proceedings. Controversy over the adoption plan has raged since the American singer spent more than a week in Malawi earlier this month on what her publicists said was a humanitarian mission to help hundreds of thousands of Malawian orphans. The coalition of rights groups says the government broke its own laws which forbid adoption of any Malawian child by a non resident by granting Madonna interim adoption rights. The child is now at Madonna's London home with her other two children -- daughter Lourdes aged 10 years and six-year-old son Rocco . Final approval for the adoption order is expected in 18 months.

ITN Source | November 2, 2006

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