Japanese woman’s contempt of court plea against Sharif rejected

The Appellate Division has rejected a contempt of court petition filed by Japanese citizen Nakano Eriko against her two children’s father and Bangladesh-born US citizen Imran Sharif.

The Appellate Division led by Chief Justice Hasan Foez Siddique passed the order on Thursday (June 2).

Senior counsel Barrister Ajmalul Hossain QC and Advocate Md Shishir Monir were present on behalf of the mother of the children in court.

Earlier on May 16, Japanese citizen Nakano Eriko filed a contempt of court petition against her two children’s father and Bangladesh-born US citizen Imran Sharif. The petition was filed with the Appellate Division led by Chief Justice Hasan Foez Siddique.

On that day, Advocate Md Shishir Monir told journalists that: “There is an instruction from the Appellate Division that the two children will stay with their mother and the father could visit the children every day. Disobeying this instruction, Imran sometimes took the children outside by force, which is contempt of the court order.”

On February 13, the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court ordered that the children of Eriko and Sharif be kept in the custody of their mother.

The court said that the two children will remain with the mother until the case is settled in the Dhaka Family Court, and directed the family court to dispose of the case within three months.

Sharif, an American citizen of Bangladeshi descent, married Nakano in 2008. The couple had three children.

Three days after Nakano filed for divorce in January 2021, Sharif picked his two eldest daughters up on their way home from school and flew with them to Bangladesh. The three have been living here since.

Nakano came to Bangladesh from Japan in July last year to try and regain custody of her children. The legal battle has stretched on for months.

On November 21, the High Court decided that Bangladeshi citizen Sharif would have custody of the two girls he had brought to Dhaka from Japan. He was, however, required to allow their mother to meet with them in private.

Nakano then challenged the decision at the Supreme Court. The apex court then granted her custody of the children.