Adoption agency backs Angelina in row over her Ethiopian daughter

Relatives of two-year-old Zahara, including a woman who says she is her birth mother, want the child returned to Ethiopia, according to reports out of the US. Jolie adopted Zahara in July, 2005.

Tsegaye Berhe, the head of Wide Horizons for Children, which conducted the adoption said it was "legal and irrevocable."

Scroll down for more...

He continued: "The court in Addis Ababa approved the adoption after studying the document her grandmother wrote... saying her daughter, the mother of Zahara, had died and she was too poor to bring her up."

"The grandmother brought three witnesses to court who testified that Zahara's mother had died and that her father was unknown ... The court also investigated the social status of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt before approving the adoption."

He blamed reporters who he said had paid the relatives to raise the dispute.

Scroll down for more...

Mentewab Dawit Lebiso, who claimed to be Zahara's birth mother, told America's In Touch magazine earlier this week: "I want my daughter to come home to see where she is from. Her grandmother and I both tried very hard to raise her, and I want her to come home to regain her identity."

Mentewab claimed Zahara was conceived when she was raped by a stranger who broke into her home.

Mentewab said she became overwhelmed, and confessed: "I thought the baby was going to die because there was no food, so I ran away."

Mentewab's mother then allegedly signed the baby over for adoption.

Scroll down for more...

While the child's birth family claim they were misled over the adoption.

They say a local official, who took Zahara to the adoption agency, told the family they would get to see the baby again and maintain contact with her. But that has not happened.

Zahara's aunt, Zinash Haile Yenero, 20, told In Touch: "After they took the baby, they didn't keep in contact. They didn't tell us anything about her."

Scroll down for more...

"My mother was very sad. At one point she was even thinking of trying to find a way to bring her grandchild back. But she has no money, so she can't."

Meanwhile, reports claim the Hollywood couple have purchased a man-made island in the shape of Ethiopia in Dubai as a tribute to their daughter.

The couple's purchase is part of a luxury development which features a cluster of 300 islands, shaped like a world map, that is gradually surfacing in waters off the coast line.

Angelina and Brad have two other adopted children, Maddox, 6, who was born in Cambodia and Pax Thien, 3, from Vietnam, and a biological daughter, Shiloh, 1.