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Marine Allowed to Keep Afghan Orphan Despite Disputed Adoption

Virginia Supreme Court ends years of litigation allowing Maj. Joshua Mast to keep an Afghan war orphan despite Afghan government and U.S. warnings about international law risks.

  • On Thursday, the Virginia Supreme Court ruled that a U.S. Marine and his wife may keep an Afghan orphan, citing a law that bars adoption challenges after six months.
  • In September 2019, U.S. soldiers found the infant injured during a raid, her family killed, and brought her to Bagram Air Base hospital while the U.S. State Department under President Donald Trump insisted on reunification with Afghan relatives vetted by the Afghan government.
  • Moore granted a weekend temporary adoption on Sunday, Nov. 10, 2019, and later a final adoption in December 2020, waiving safeguards during the process.
  • The ruling likely ends a bitter, yearslong legal battle, while government filings warned keeping the child risks endorsing `international child abduction` and threatening international security pacts, the Justice Department said.
  • Three dissenting justices called the court's handling wrong and cancerous, and court transcripts reveal a fractured bureaucracy where high-ranking military and government officials took extraordinary, conflicting steps.
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Center

The Supreme Court of the state of Virginia allowed them to join an American Navy officer and his wife to keep an Afghan orphanage that they brought with them to the U.S., ending in the beginning of a trial sentence, AFP reported.

·Romania
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Lean Right

After several years of judicial battle, the Virginia Supreme Court validated the adoption of an Afghan girl brought back to the United States by a soldier and her wife.

·Paris, France
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Times West Virginian broke the news in on Saturday, February 7, 2026.
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