A Finnish court has ruled against returning a Russian woman's son back to her, whom her Finnish husband had earlier taken out of Russia last year, the defendant's lawyer said on Friday.
The child's father, Paavo Salonen, was charged in Russia last year for illegally taking his son Anton to Finland with the help of a Finnish diplomat in April. The boy has joint Finnish-Russian citizenship. His mother, Rimma Salonen, was given an 18-month suspended sentence last October in Finland for illegally taking Anton to Russia in 2008.
"Today there was a court hearing during which Rimma demanded her son's return. The court decided against this," Johan Backman said.
Backman said the court had refused Rimma Salonen's request for custody of the child until the kidnapping charges had been decided. He also said Rimma and Anton are not allowed to speak Russian during visitations.
On April 12 last year, Salonen took Anton out of Russia with the help of St. Petersburg-based Finnish diplomat Simo Pietilainen, who drove through the Russian-Finnish border with the 6-year-old boy in the trunk of his vehicle. The incident sparked a diplomatic row between Russia and Finland.
MOSCOW, April 30 (RIA Novosti)
