Sophie Scharbook Case: Paris wants the girl back to her father

The legal position of Sophie Scharbook, a girl claimed since 2005 by her father from his wife...s Algerian family, is clearly established and France continues to ask that she is given back to her father, said Monday the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

•     “Both the documents of civil status in possession of Jacques Scharbook and court decisions in Algeria, state that Sophie Scharbook is the daughter of Jacques Scharbook,” said delegate spokesman at the Quai d'Orsay, Frédéric Desagneaux, asked about an information press in Algeria ensuring that this latter is not the father of the girl.
  
      “The Supreme Court of Algeria, on 13 February 2008, confirmed that the child should return to Jacques Scharbook. We continue to seek full implementation of this decision by the Algerian authorities as soon as possible,” said the spokesman, insisting on a restitution of rights of Jacques Scharbook concerning his child, in the higher interest of the small Sophie.”
  
      An Algerian newspaper had said recently that DNA tests showed that Mr. Sharbook was not the father of Sophie and she was Algerian and not French as he says.
  
      Beginning in March, Jacques Scharbook told the press that he made a telephone call to the French president Nicolas Sarkozy to find his daughter, who disappeared in 2005 during the funeral of his wife who died in a car accident. Since then, he obtained from an Algerian court the return of the child, a decision upheld on appeal by the Supreme Court of Algiers in February 2008.
  
      
  Ennaharonline/ M. O.