Florida couple might not get asylum in Cuba

MIAMI (AP):

The Florida couple accused of snatching away their two sons and fleeing to Cuba may have thought they could find a refuge from United States authorities on the communist island. But with criminal charges pending and little for Cuba to gain politically by holding them, experts say they are unlikely to stay for long.

In a case drawing parallels with the Elian Gonzalez saga more than a decade ago, authorities say Joshua Michael Hakken kidnapped his sons, four-year-old Cole and two-year-old Chase, from his mother-in-law's house north of Tampa and took the children and his wife, Sharyn, on a boat to Cuba.

The boys' maternal grandparents had been granted permanent custody of the boys last week.

The US and Cuba share no extradition agreement and the island nation is also not a signatory of the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, an international treaty for governmental cooperation on such cases.

That means it will be up to Cuban authorities on whether or not to return to them.

"If Cuba's view is the father has the right to the children, it's up to them to make that decision," said Cyra Akila Choudhury, a Florida International University law professor and expert in family custody cases.