The French Justice Ministry is dragging its feet on handing over Russian actress Natalya Zakharova to Russia, who in 2006 was sentenced to three years behind bars for arson of her former French husband's apartment, her lawyer Alexei Pershin said.
On the basis of the Russian-French Convention of 2003, Moscow's Presnensky Court on April 17, 2011, filed a request by the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service to transfer Zakharova to Russia to serve her sentence there.
The actress married Patrick Ouari in 1993 and left Russia for France. In 1995, Zakharova gave birth to a daughter, Masha, and soon divorced her spouse. In 2004, the woman was deprived of her parental rights.
The Russian actress left France in 2006 and has since relentlessly been trying to retain parental rights over Masha, who is currently living in a foster home. In 2006, a Russian court recognized Zakharova's parental rights, but on April 26 this year, a French court again deprived the woman of her parental rights. "This decision is illegal," Pershin said in regard to the move.
In January 2010, Zakharova returned to France to take part in court hearings on her parental rights. But the order on her arrest for arson remains in effect in France and soon after her arrival she was detained.
"France, in particular a representative of the French Justice Ministry, Jean-Michel Dejenne, are stonewalling Zakharova's extradition to Russia, despite the fact that all the necessary decisions have been made," Pershin said.
Zakharova is awaiting extradition to Russia in a French prison. "Her health problems have worsened and the foot-dragging of the extradition may have an even more negative impact on her health," the lawyer said.
MOSCOW, May 3 (RIA Novosti)
