Monday, Oct. 5, 2009

              

WASHINGTON (Kyodo) About 20 people staged a demonstration Saturday outside the Japanese Embassy here to protest the arrest of Christopher Savoie for allegedly kidnapping his children from his Japanese ex-wife in Fukuoka Prefecture.

The participants called for the American's release.

Noriko Savoie, his former wife, took the two children to Japan from their home in Tennessee.

On Sept. 28, Christopher Savoie put the children, who were walking to school with their mother, into a car to take them to the U.S. Consulate in the city of Fukuoka before being arrested.

"Christopher's custody has been granted in the U.S. and he is still the father," said Amy Savoie, his current wife.

She stressed that it was unfair to only arrest the person who tried to take back the children and not the one who took the children to Japan in the first place.

Japanese investigators have said the children were under Noriko Savoie's supervision and that it was reasonable to arrest him after taking the two kids with his friends.

There have been similar cases reported in the U.S. and other countries.

Participants at the rally called on Japan to sign the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, which aims to secure the prompt return of children wrongfully removed to or detained in signatory countries.

A man who claimed his daughter was taken away by his ex-wife said fear of being arrested has prevented him from taking similar action. "Christopher is a hero," he said. "I will negotiate to take back my daughter."