Brazil top judge orders U.S. boy returned to father

BRASILIA (Reuters) - The Brazilian Supreme Court's top judge ruled on Tuesday that Sean Goldman, the 9-year-old boy at the center of an international custody battle, must be reunited with his father and return to the United States, a press officer at the court told reporters.

American David Goldman has been fighting to bring his son home since 2004 when his then-wife, Sean's mother, brought the boy to her native Brazil and then divorced Goldman. She died last year.

The ruling by Chief Justice Gilmar Mendes is preliminary and needs approval by the full court but it is immediately binding and could therefore allow Goldman to take his son back to the United States.

However, the lawyer for the Brazilian family has said he has prepared an appeal.

"The decision by the president of the Supreme Court re-establishes the decision of the Tribunal of Rio de Janeiro which brought custody of the son to the biological father," said Supreme Court spokesman Renato Parente.

That ruling last week gave the Brazilian family 48 hours to hand over Sean to U.S. authorities but it was blocked shortly afterward by a ruling from another Supreme Court judge.

The Goldman case has reached the highest levels of both governments and threatened to mar Brazil-U.S. relations.

Goldman and the U.S. government say Sean's case is clearly one of international child abduction.

Bianchi's family and her second husband have fought to keep Sean in Brazil, saying he has settled in the country and does not want to go back the United States.

(Reporting by Ana Paula Paiva; Editing by Chris Wilson and Bill Trott)