MOSCOW, August 2 (RIA Novosti) - A Russian woman caught up in a custody battle with her Finnish ex-husband over their six-year-old son has been arrested in Finland for abduction, the Russian Embassy in Helsinki said.
Rimma Salonen faces charges of illegally taking her son Anton out of Finland last year. In April this year, her ex-husband, Paavo Salonen, re-abducted Anton, taking him back to Finland with the help of a St. Petersburg-based diplomat, an incident that sparked an angry response from the Russian government.
An official at the embassy in Helsinki told RIA Novosti: "Finnish police have officially informed us [of Rimma Salonen's arrest]. Unfortunately, we do not yet have further information."
According to Russian media reports, Rimma Salonen, from Russia's Nizhny Novgorod Region, was arrested on Saturday at the airport in the Finnish city of Tampere, where she had travelled to take out 30,000 euros previously frozen in her Finnish account, and to meet with Anton, as well as Nikita, her 19-year-old son from an earlier marriage.
The woman's Finnish lawyer, Johan Backman, told reporters that just before leaving for Finland, she had contacted Finnish police, and received a guarantee from them that she would not be arrested.
However, the Finnish news website Scandi News said that Salonen was arrested in Estonia's capital Tallinn on the request of the Finnish authorities, and then taken to Finland.
Russian media say she is expected to face a court trial on Monday.
On April 12, Anton Salonen was abducted by his father in Russia, and driven across the border into Finland by Simo Pietilainen, who at the time was an employee of the Finnish Consulate in St. Petersburg.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov later protested to his Finnish counterpart, Alexander Stubb, over the incident, and Pietilainen was declared persona non grata in Russia.
The issue was even raised at a meeting between Russia's prime minister and Finland's president at their meeting on June 3.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said the former Finnish diplomat's actions undermine trust between the countries, and President Tarja Halonen condemned the diplomat's behavior.
