я его добиваюсь!"
Advocate's legal help in court cases of parental international kidnapping
Parental child abduction when the child being
taken to a different country - to Russia
When children live in families where the parents are citizens of different countries they are in danger when the family breaks up because such children can be abducted and being taken by one parent to a foreign country.
Whereby the parent who abducts (takes away) the child to the country of her/his citizenship always acts secretly, covertly and unexpectedly.
The other parent goes to work or on business and after returning home he does not find the children. Only after a while, he realizes that the child or children have been taken out of their country of residence and it is very difficult to bring them back home.
Whereby the parent who abducted the child may begin to hide in the country of his citizenship and hide the location of the abducted child.
The procedure described by the Hague Convention of 1980 on the civil aspects of international child abduction (hereinafter the Convention) is applied to return the child to his country of residence.
On July 28, 2011 the Russian Federation joined to this Convention, which entered into force for Russia on October 1, 2011.
It is necessary to start immediately searching for a child with the help of a lawyer in the country of citizenship of the parent who has abducted the child.
The lawyer Maria Yarmush helped a lot of parents to find the abducted children, who in some cases were returned to their country of residence by the Russian court, in other cases a connection with these children was found and the order of communication of a parent living apart was determined in court.
So, an Italian citizen has asked the lawyer Maria Yarmush to return his five-year-old son, taken away by his Russian mother from Italy to Moscow.
This man was married to the mother of the kidnapped child. Spouses have been living together in Italy in their own home for more than five years. Their son was born in Italy. Whereby the intention of the spouses was to permanently reside in Italy.
The child has acquired Russian citizenship with the consent of his father but the child has never lived in Russia. The child speaks Italian. The boy does not speak Russian.
The mother of the child took her son out of Italy to Russia by deceit, where she has been keeping him since that day isolated from his father.
Such actions of the child's mother by virtue of the Convention are interpreted as international child abduction.
The child’s father found out that his wife had filed a claim in a Russian court demanding the dissolution of the marriage and the determination of the child’s place of residence with her.
The case, initiated by the child’s mother, was suspended at the request of the lawyer by the court until the consideration of the application of the father of the child by the other court about the return of his son to Italy.
The father of the child also, on the advice of the lawyer, appealed to the central authority - the Ministry of Justice of Italy - for the return of the illegally displaced child in accordance with the Hague Convention on the civil aspects of international child abduction.
Thus, the mother of the child illegally took away her son from Italy to Russia without informing the father of the child or receiving his consent to move his son. The father claimed the return of the child.
However, the Russian court refused to return the child to Italy, regardless of the fact that at the time of the transfer the child had a permanent/usual residence in Italy, indicating in its decision that there was no court decision at the time of the child’s departure on determination of the residence of the child with father in Italy, so the mother had the right to go with her son to Russia.
Such decision of the Russian court is controversial and not fully compliant with the Convention.
But the father of the child, on the advice of the lawyer, had to come to terms with his son living in Russia with his mother and ask the court to determine a good order of communication with the child with the ability to travel to Italy for summer holidays.
In another case, the father of the child - a US citizen, by a court decision of the American court had full custody of his son after the divorce.
The mother of the child - a citizen of Russia, and she had a contact schedule with her son during which she secretly took her son away to the Russian Federation, where she began to hide.
It was impossible to return the child to the father in the United States since Russia and the United States do not have the agreement on the recognition and enforcement of court decisions. In addition, the United States has not ratified the Convention of 1980.
Under such circumstances, the Russian court would not have been guided by the decision of the American court on the place of residence of the child and would not have returned the child to the United States by virtue of the Convention.
The mother, in this case, would have more chances to determine the residence of her son with her in Russia in the Russian court.
The lawyer Maria Yarmush began searching for a child, and at the same time, a petition was filed to the Russian court to determine the order of communication between father and son.
This order of communication was determined by the court. Later on, the child wanted to return home to the USA with his father. The mother of the child could not resist her son and was forced to agree.
Thus, it is not always possible to use the Convention to return a child to his country of residence. In some cases, a parent living apart may begin to communicate with the child on the basis of a court decision and in the future receive a new decision on the return of the child to his country of residence.
A citizen of Romania applied to Maria Yarmush to return her son who was held in Moscow by his father.
The child was born in Romania and lived with his mother. The father of the child is an Italian citizen who lived and worked in Moscow.
For a short time, the mother and son stayed at the father's place in Moscow and then they went home. The boy’s father took the child out of Romania by deceit and began hiding him from his mother, holding him in Moscow.
Maria Yarmush initiated a civil case in the Tverskoy District Court of Moscow with a claim for the return of the child to Romania to the mother.
The court fully satisfied the claims and decided to return the child to the mother for living with her in Romania.
The child was found, the court decision was executed in full with the help of the lawyer.