Appeals court says Brazil mom can keep son until child abduction case with US dad is final

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazil's top appeals court says a young boy must stay with his Brazilian mother and not his American father until a final ruling is made in their international abduction case.

Kelvin Birotte of Houston, Texas, has been fighting to regain custody of his 4-year-old son. The boy was taken by his mother — Hilma Aparecida Caldeira, a former Olympic volleyball player — to her native Brazil in 2006. She then divorced Birotte.

A court last week ordered Caldeira to hand the boy over by Thursday, basing its ruling on the Hague Convention on International Child Abduction.

Caldeira appealed the decision to the higher federal court, which issued its order late Thursday.

There is no indication of when a final ruling may come.