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Journalism of Courage
A year after French diplomat Pascal Mazurier was arrested for allegedly raping his four-year-old daughter,based on a complaint by his wife Suja Jones,his French lawyers have flown to Bangalore to appeal for visitation rights to his three children.
Pierre Olivier Sur,president of the Paris Bar Association,said Mazurier,who was granted bail in October last year after a DNA report failed to prima facie implicate him,has not had news of his children since he was arrested in June last year. He is an innocent man. I believe that justice will prevail but we all know that it is a matter of time. And during this period the only thing you can never recover is the time lost with your young children, Sur said.
Sur said they have also appealed the court to allow Mazuriers mother to keep in touch with the children. The last time I met the kids was on February 8,in the chambers of a judge. The meeting lasted 40-45 minutes. They did not speak at all. Their mother was with them, said Jacqueline Mailee,Mazuriers mother. I hope they will speak to me if we get visitation rights.
Mazuriers Indian lawyers said they are not asking for a legal exception. In cases involving children,an interim visitation arrangement could be made as a matter of routine. There is no reason to prevent contact,especially if it is in the presence of a mediator, said his counsel P B Appaiah.
Kumar Jahgirdar of the NGO Childrens Rights Initiative for Shared Parenting said India,being a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child,must react since the children have suffered the most in this case. He claimed they go to an inferior school and lead a deprived life.
