2 daughters will stay with Japanese mother, one with father: HC

A single bench of the High Court (HC) on Tuesday said in its judgement, Japanese mother Eriko Nakano would get the custody of her two children, while father Bangladesh-born US citizen Imran Sharif would get another one.

Nakano Jasmine Malika, the elder daughter, and Sonia, the youngest one, will stay with their mother, while Nakano Laila Lina, the second daughter, will stay with their father.

A bench of Justice Mamunun Rashid made the decision while pronouncing the judgment accepting an appeal partially, filed by father Imran Sharif, on Tuesday.

Senior lawyer Barrister Akhter Imam, Barrister Rashna Imam and Adv Akter Lavly were present in the court for Imran, while Barrister Ajmalul Hossain QC and Adv Mohammad Shishir Monir on behalf of the Japanese mother.

But both the parents will meet their children.

Eriko can live in Bangladesh or any other country, including Japan, with her eldest and youngest daughters, according to the court order.

Earlier on January 29, 2023, a family court of Dhaka said in its judgement that Japanese mother Eriko Nakano would have custody of her two children. Later, their father filed a review petition with the High Court against this verdict.

After 12 years of marriage, on January 18 last year, Nakano, a physician, appealed for divorce from engineer Sharif over marital dispute.

On January 28 in 2021, she also filed a case with a Tokyo family court for the custody of their three children.

But on February 21, Imran returned to Bangladesh with their two girls from Japan. After that, a Japanese court passed an order giving the children under their mother’s custody.

On August 19, Nakano filed a petition in the High Court here seeking custody of the two girls.
Nakano is now staying at a rented apartment in Dhaka’s Baridhara area with her daughters.

Earlier, the Japanese mother Nakano on December 23  has been charged with trying to flee Bangladesh with the two children. On that day police barred Nakano at Dhaka’s Shahjalal International Airport as she tried to leave Bangladesh for Japan with her daughters in defiance of the court order.

Sharif Imran, an American citizen of Bangladeshi descent, married Nakano in 2008. The couple has three children. One of them is with her maternal grandmother in Japan.