A Wisconsin father had a very Merry Christmas this year, after his daughter, who had been taken to Japan by her mother, was finally brought back to him after a years-long custody battle.

Moises Garcia, 39, picked up his daughter Karina at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport Saturday and drove to Garcia’s home in Fox Point, Wisconsin after a very long and expensive 4-year custody battle with her mother.

The physician had been without his daughter since February 2008, when her mother, 43-year-old Emiko Inoue, a Japanese women living in the U.S., took the girl to Japan with her shortly after Garcia filed for divorce. Inoue ignored court orders to return with the girl, as she did not have legal custody, but last February she was arrested and pled no contest to interfering with child custody. An agreement was reached the Inoue would be convicted of a misdemeanor and allowed to leave jail if she returned Karina, 9, to Garcia.

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