A mother spent years fighting for her son. Now he could be sent back to her abusive husband in Italy.

In a closely watched case that went to the Supreme Court and galvanized calls for legal reforms to better protect domestic violence victims, a federal judge is set to rule on whether a 6-year-old boy must be sent back to Italy to live with his father, who admitted in court to abusing the boy’s now deceased mother.

The decision about whether the son of the late Narkis Golan can continue living with his mother’s family in Brooklyn, New York, or must return to his birthplace of Milan to live with his father, Isacco Jacky Saada, will follow a contentious court battle in which Golan’s family has alleged the boy has returned from recent visits with his father distressed and with bruises, among other claims included in recent court filings. Saada denies causing bruising or distress to the boy.