Madonna (R) gets into a car after visiting an orphanage in Blantyre
© AFP/File Eldson ChagaraLILONGWE (AFP) - Adoption papers were filed on behalf of Madonna and her film-maker husband Guy Ritchie on Wednesday, and a decision on their application was expected later Thursday.
"The government yesterday filed adoption papers on behalf of Madonna in order for a legal process of adoption to go through the courts which is a condition according to the laws of Malawi," John Kapito, head of the official human rights commission, said.
"The process is done to determine mitigating factors in the interests of the child.
"The court must determine if Madonna can be trusted to safely keep the child. The court will have to grant that pemission for Madonna to adopt the child," he added.
Sources at the high court in Lilongwe confirmed that a closed-door hearing was under way although it was not immediately clear if Madonna was present.
Although there has been no official word from Madonna herself, a cleric who runs the orphanage where the youngster she wants to adopt has been living, identified the boy as David Banda.
Thomson John Chipeta, a cleric with the Protestant Church of Central Africa, told AFP that the youngster was placed in the orphanage when his mother Marita died a week after his birth.
Chipeta, who runs the Home of Hope orphanage in Mchinji district, 120 kilometres (75 miles) from the administrative capital Lilongwe, said the father, Yohane Banda, an illiterate 32-year-old farmer, "could not afford to raise him since he is poor."
The Sun, Britain's biggest-selling paper, quoted the father as saying he was "very happy" that a "famous US musician" was adopting his son, who is also known as Davie.
"As you can see there is poverty in my village," Banda told the newspaper.
"I know he will be very happy in America. We are told David will be coming back regularly to know his roots."
©AFP