Six months after an American man whisked his infant son out of Italy against the mother’s wishes and deliberately withheld the child’s whereabouts, a federal judge ruled this week that the mother can return with the child to her native Italy. The plight of the mother, 46-year-old Claudia Ciampa, has attracted widespread sympathy in Italy, as well as outrage toward the father.

News outlets have covered the case extensively. On the popular TV news program “Storie Italiane,” it is known as Il Dramma di Claudia. The origins of the couple’s relationship, detailed in a hearing this month in U.S. District Court, were not in dispute. Ciampa has lived in Sorrento, near Naples, most of her life with her extended family.