Claudia Ciampa gave birth to 7-month-old Ethan in Cincinnati, Ohio, but the family lived in Piano di Sorrento near Naples, Ansa reported.
After the couple split up, the father took the baby on August 30th during a vacation in Puglia, according to a child abduction suit that Ciampa filed that morning.
Ciampa said she doesn’t know where exactly the father has taken Ethan, who has dual citizenship, but she assumes he’s in the US.
“I’m desperate and exhausted. I need your help and the entire government’s support to be able to hug my little Ethan again,” she wrote in a letter to Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani.
After 40 days of failing to get the baby back, she decided the case needed diplomatic intervention, and not just legal efforts.
Both Italy and the US have ratified the 1980 Hague Abduction Convention, which helps expedite the return of children taken unlawfully from one country to another.
Ethan’s father allows him to briefly see his mother during one video call per day, but during the calls the father is careful not to give away clues as to where they’re staying, Ciampa said during a TV interview in September.
The baby was still breastfeeding when he was taken in August and cries every time he sees his mother, she said.
Under Italian law, if one separated parent wants to take a child abroad and the other objects, a judge must grant permission for the trip to happen.
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