Archaeologist returns to France to battle custody case

A FRENCH archaeologist embroiled in a custody battle with his ex-wife left the island with his daughter yesterday to return to France and face court action there.

In October 1995, two months after Yvon Gourlay brought nine-year-old Tiphaine to Cyprus, he was sentenced to a year’s imprisonment in absentia for non-presentation of his daughter. Early this year Gourlay was arrested in Cyprus on an Interpol warrant after his former wife, Chantal Pinguet, came to Cyprus to try and take her daughter back. Tiphaine did not return with her mother, telling reporters she wanted to stay with her father.

Gourlay’s extradition hearing began before Nicosia District Court but was abandoned after he stated he was to return to his home country voluntarily to face the music.

“They left this morning on the 9am flight to Paris,” Gourlay’s lawyer, Doros Lykourgos, said yesterday, referring to the father and daughter.

Lykourgos said Gourlay’s return meant the in absentia conviction would be overturned and court proceedings begun anew.

He said Gourlay would be tried for contempt of court for allegedly failing to present his daughter but would also be seeking custody of his daughter. The French court has previously given custody to the mother.

“The first hearing will be on Thursday October 20,’ Lykourgos said.

Lykourgos said that after consulting with his French lawyer, Gourlay felt confident of winning his case

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.