man worked in a medical office and ran a coed school which is unusual in afghanistan his wife graduated from high school at the top of her class and is fluent in three languages including english they had married for love unlike many afghans in arranged marriagesmast expressed doubts about the newlyfound uncle describing him in court records as an anonymous person of unknown nationality and claiming that turning the baby over to him was inherently dangerous he asked the red cross to put him in touch but they refusedin emails to a us military office requesting evacuation mast alleged that he read more than 150 pages of classified documents and concluded the child was a stateless minor mast believed she was the daughter of transient terrorists who are citizens of no country his attorney said he also speculated that if reunited with her family she could be made a child soldier or a suicide bomber sold into sex trafficking hit in a us military strike or stoned for being a girlbut afghanistan did not waver the child was a citizen of their countrymasts attorney sent the us embassy a cease and desist letter warning them not to hand the baby over according to the state department official but on february 26 2020 the masts learned that the us was preparing to put the baby now nearly 8 months old on a plane early the following morning to join her family in another afghan citythe masts represented by richard mast sued the secretaries of defense and state in a federal court in virginia asking for an emergency restraining order to stop them the masts claimed they were the babys lawful permanent legal guardianswithin hours four federal attorneys two from the justice department and two from the us attorneys office were on the phone and richard mast was in federal judge norman moons officerichard mast said the baby should not be condemned to suffer he complained that the afghan government had not conducted dna testing to confirm the family they found was truly related to the childbut the justice department attorneys said they had no right to mandate how the afghan government vets the family and that the red cross which has reunited relatives in war zones for more than a century had confirmed it was done properly further the federal governments attorneys described the masts custody documents from state court as unlawful deeply flawed and incorrect and issued on a false premise that has never happened that afghanistan would waive jurisdictionjudge moon asked richard mast your client is not asking to adopt the childno sir mast responded he wants to get her medical treatment in the united statesjustice department attorneys argued that the united states must meet its international obligations attorney alexander haas put it simply taking another countrys citizen to the united states would have potentially profound implications on our military and foreign affairs interestsjudge moon ruled against the masts and the baby stayed