Mum leaves jail to be with daughter after 8 years

A Spanish-born woman jailed in an international custody dispute has been freed after spending more than eight years behind bars and is likely to be reunited with her daughter, who's been without either parent for nearly a decade.

Forty-nine-year-old María Jose Carrascosa was released from jail Friday night, The Record reported.

Her whereabouts were not known Saturday, and her attorney couldn't be reached for comment.

Carrascosa was paroled last year after serving a prison term for moving her daughter, then 5, to Spain when the girl's father, Peter Innes, was granted custody of the child. Carrascosa was convicted in 2009 of willful interference with child custody.

Once paroled, Carrascosa was taken to the Bergen County Jail for contempt of court for violating a court order to bring the child back. She had declared that she would rather die in jail than bring her daughter back to New Jersey.

Superior Court Judge Bonnie Mizdol, ultimately deciding that incarceration would not coerce Carrascosa to comply with child custody orders, ordered her release.

During a hearing, the judge read a letter from Peter Innes that said he would not oppose Carrascosa's release if she returns to Spain to be with their daughter, Victoria.

"I am glad it is over and she is out," Innes, who did not attend the hearing, told the newspaper. "I just hope she is on her way home to see our daughter."

The judge also read a letter from Victoria, who is now 14, that said: "My only wish is to be with my mother."

Follow Emirates 24|7 on Google News.