Malawi court rejects Madonna's adoption request

Madonna visits Salaza village near Lilongwe, Malawi. In a surprise move, a judge yesterday rejected her bid to adopt a second child from the country.

LILONGWE, Malawi – Wealthy, famous, fabulous at 50 – but not a mother of four.

A judge has rejected pop star Madonna’s a bid to adopt a second child from Malawi.

The judge said she will not bend the country’s residency rules, even though Malawi’s child welfare minister had publicly supported the application and ordinary Malawians have said Madonna offered 3-year-old Chifundo “Mercy” James a chance at a better life.

Madonna’s lawyer, Alan Chinula, said that he had filed notice for appeal in the Supreme Court of Appeal. No date for a hearing was immediately set, he said.

There was no immediate comment from Madonna or her spokeswoman in New York.

In a lengthy ruling yesterday, Judge Esme Chombo sided with critics who have said exceptions should not be made for the star who has set up a major development project for this impoverished, AIDS-stricken southern African country.

Chombo said other foreigners have adopted children from Malawi, but the only case in which some residency requirement was waived was to allow Madonna to take her son David Banda out of the country in 2006 before that adoption was finalised in 2008.

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