Tag Archives: France
Kelly Rutherford granted temporary sole custody of her two children
May 26, 2015
Source: CNN
Actress Kelly Rutherford, who played Lily van der Woodsen on “Gossip Girl,” has been granted temporary sole custody of her two children in a protracted dispute that sparked an online petition.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Mark Juhas ruled that son Hermes, 8, and daughter Helena, 5, be brought back to the United States from Monaco, where they have been living with their father, Daniel Giersch.
“We are pleased that the Los Angeles Superior Court acted swiftly on Friday, May 22nd to confirm its continuing jurisdiction over the custody matter and the parties’ two children,” Rutherford’s attorney, David Glass, said in an email. “We remain hopeful that Mr. Giersch, after reviewing the Orders, will cooperate fully and assist us in peacefully transferring the children to Kelly’s custody.”
The couple married in August 2006, separated in December 2008 and was divorced in July 2010.
According to Rutherford’s attorneys, she recently traveled to see her children in France but was denied access by Giersch at this last minute.
He claimed she was refusing to turn over the children’s passports. Rutherford argued that she was willing to have a mutually agreed party hold them but did not want to turn the documents over to a designee of Giersch’s choice.
The next court hearing in the case is scheduled for June 15.
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NSA Data Shows Islamic State Plans Series of Terror Attacks in Europe
January 11 , 2015
According to recorded phone conversations of IS leaders, Europe should be expecting a wave of terror and the events in France are only the beginning.
According to US National Security Agency (NSA) data, the recent events in France are only the beginning of Islamic State (IS) radical organization’s planned series of terrorist attacks in Europe, Bild am Sonntag reported Sunday.
A few months ago, NSA staff was able to tap phone conversations of IS leaders, of which it became known that Europe should be expecting a wave of terror and the events in France were only the beginning.
Eight Charlie Hebdo cartoonists were murdered Wednesday by Islamist terrorists Cherif and Said Kouachi, who also killed police officers outside the magazine’s office.
Another attacker, Amedy Coulibaly, who is believed to have had links to the brothers, killed four hostages in a supermarket in eastern Paris on Friday. He is also reported to be behind the murder of a policewoman that took place in southern Paris on Thursday.
There is no specific information about the plans of the Islamic State, but the recorded conversations mentioned Rome, the newspaper said.
Earlier in January, the head of the British intelligence agency MI5 Andrew Parker said that al-Qaeda is planning attacks on Western countries. According to him, in particular, the terrorist group is preparing attacks on transport infrastructure and landmarks, and the terrorist attacks in the United Kingdom could occur with high probability. Parker added that the Islamic State is also planning attacks in the country.
Islamic State (IS), also known as Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), has taken over large portions of Iraq and neighboring Syria and proclaimed a caliphate on the territories under its control.
Parental Kidnapping – Slovakian woman gets probation in child abduction case
October 21 , 2014
Source: abc7.com
Parental Kidnapping
A mother accused of keeping her two young sons from their fathers has escaped jail time. Maria Pfeifer was the subject of an international manhunt for violating custody orders and failing to return from vacation in Europe.
On Monday, Pfeifer, a former Los Angeles resident, was sentenced to three years of probation and ordered to pay restitution.
“The safety of the two sons that are at issue in this case was my primary concern,” prosecutor Deanne Castorena said.
Prosecutors says Pfeifer plead guilty to one felony count of custody deprivation. The sentence imposed Monday allows for Pfeifer, who is nine months pregnant, to travel out of the country.
“I think her departing the country will be the best thing all around for both the adult victims and the minor children involved in this case,” Castorena said.
Pfeifer’s attorneys say their client was pleased with Monday’s sentencing.
“For us, for the defense team, the big result was she’s not serving a day in jail on this case,” defense attorney Dmitry Gorin said.
In 2012, Pfeifer, 32, was allowed to take the boys on a 10-day trip to her native Slovakia and the Czech Republic, but never came back. She was arrested in France last December after violating custody orders that she return with her sons.
She was accused of disguising her sons, then 4 and 10 years old, by trying to pass them off as girls.
Back in Los Angeles, the boys’ fathers teamed up to find their sons, and eventually reunited. Both boys are now with their fathers in Southern California.
“They are not seeking to punish or seek revenge or exact tit-for-tat upon Ms. Pfeifer. They just want to raise their sons in a secure environment without threat of further abduction,” Castorena said.
And while Pfeifer lost her parental rights to the two boys, she hopes to someday reconnect with them.
“Hopefully, at some point, both the fathers will agree that it’s in the best interest of the children to see their mother, and some kind of visitation can be arranged where she’s residing,” defense attorney Richard Hirsch said.
Pfeifer must also pay restitution to the two fathers, one of whom is Robert Pfeifer, a former music executive who served time in prison in connection to the racketeering case against Hollywood private eye Anthony Pellicano. Prosecutors say most of the undisclosed restitution has already been paid.
Pfeifer’s attorneys say that she plans to leave Los Angeles and return to her home in Switzerland sometime in the next several days.
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Prevent International Parental Child Abduction: Letter of Parental Authorization for Minors Traveling
January 30 , 2014
Source: gomexico
In order to prevent international child abductions, many countries require children who are traveling without their parents to present documentation that proves that the parents authorize the child to travel.
In the past, it was an official requirement of the Mexican government that any child entering or exiting the country should carry a letter of permission from their parents, or of the absent parent in the case of a child traveling with only one parent.
In many cases the documentation was not asked for, but it could be requested by immigration officials.
Since January 2014, new regulations for children traveling to Mexico stipulate that foreign children who travel to Mexico as tourists or visitors for up to 180 days only need to present a valid passport, and are not required to present other documentation. However, Mexican children, including those holding dual citizenship with another country, or foreign children residing in Mexico who travel unaccompanied by either parent are required to show proof of their parents permission to travel. They must carry a letter from the parents authorizing travel into Mexico. The letter must be translated into Spanish and legalized by the Mexican embassy or consulate in the country where the document was issued. A letter is not required in the case of a child traveling with only one parent.
Note that these are the requirements of the Mexican immigration authorities. Travelers must also meet the requirements of their home country for exit and return.
Here is an example of a letter of authorization for travel:
(Date)
I (parent’s name), authorize my child/children, (child/children’s name) to travel to (destination) on (date of travel) aboard Airline/Flight # (flight information) with (accompanying adults), returning on (date of return).
Signed by parent or parents
Address:
Telephone/Contact:
Signature/Seal of Mexican embassy or consulate
The same letter in Spanish would read:
(Date)
Yo (parent’s name), autorizo a mi hijo/a (child’s name) a viajar a (destination) el (date of travel) en la aerolinea (flight information) con (name of accompanying adult), regresando el (date of return).
Firmado por los padres
Direccion:
Telefono:
(Signature / Seal of Mexican embassy) Sello de la embajada Mexicana
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LEPCA -Lawyers in Europe on Parental Child Abduction
January 21 , 2014
Source : LEPCA
European conference 7-8-9-(10*) May 2014
The International Child Abduction Center in the Netherlands (Center IKO) is organising the first European conference for family lawyers who represent parents in international parental child abduction cases, called LEPCA.
The conference takes place on 8 & 9 May 2014 in the Peace Palace in The Hague, the Netherlands. Here you will find the program.
Our partner in this project is Mediation bei internationalen Kindschaftskonflikten (MiKK) in Berlin, Germany. Associate Partner organisations are law firms in Belgium, France, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom, and Non-Governmental Organisations in Bulgaria, Poland and Romania. In addition, Center IKO has established a network of specialised law firms and NGO’s in many countries within the European Union.
The LEPCA Conference addresses on legal professionals who deal with the subject of international parental child abduction cases under the 1980 Hague Abduction Convention, the Brussels II bis Regulation and the 1996 Hague Child Protection Convention.
The objective of the project is to learn from best practices, exchange ideas and create a platform of specialised parental child abduction lawyers within Europe.
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Border Controls: Beefing up Passports to Prevent Parental Child Abduction
September 11, 2013
Source: The Huffington Post
For most children, summer conjures up thoughts of carefree, school-free days in the sunshine, holidays and fun.
Sadly, some of their parents do not feel as upbeat. It’s not just that they recognise the intricacies involved in balancing childcare and jobs, the effect of boisterous kids on their eardrums or the expense of keeping offspring entertained until they return to the classroom.
Many separated parents understand how difficult it can be to put their children’s welfare first when relations with their former partners become strained. Indeed, anxieties which resident parents believe to be entirely natural can become even more heightened when their exes want to take children abroad on holiday.
Some fear their family becoming another statistic, adding to the growing number of children who are abducted by their parents.
Last December, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) released figures showing that the number of abductions had risen by 88 per cent in a decade. In the 12 months to September last year, the FCO recorded 512 abductions by parents and featured 84 different countries.
A framework, established by the 1980 Hague Convention, allows for children to be speedily returned to their homes while the underlying problems that prompted their being taken are resolved.
The problem is that only 89 countries are currently signatories to the Convention. It can take years to locate and return those children taken to states which haven’t yet signed up to the Convention.
As a result of that complication and the general increase in cases of parental child abduction, official efforts have been stepped up to find a workable means of stopping such incidents happening in the first place.
Last year, a meeting of Hague signatory states proposed a new ‘consent to travel form’ added to passports in order to identify those parents legally entitled to take their children overseas and, conversely, those mothers or fathers who had restrictions preventing them from doing so.
Talks followed with the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), an agency of the United Nations which regulates air travel and the global passport system, but have so far yielded no definite results.
The Hague initiative did at least give rise to further exploration of the subject by the European Commission. Detailed research led to a report to the European Parliament at the start of this month.
In part, it confirmed what practitioners in parental child abduction cases, including myself and my colleagues in Pannone’s Family department, had long suspected. It described how the current system of combatting abductions is flawed and highlighted how little information has been compiled about children at risk of being taken across borders.
Adding further relevant information to passports, perhaps in a manner similar to that proposed by Hague Convention signatories, was one possible solution put forward.
Such a method would complement the passport system already in place and potentially overcome the inconsistencies both between countries and even in different regions of the same country which can have damaging consequences for parents trying to avert abductions and, of course, their children.
There would, naturally, be more administration to enhance current arrangements and that work would cost money. Who would pay – and how – has not been discussed to date.
What the Hague Convention and now European Commission have begun, though, is to develop momentum towards a resolution of an issue of pressing concern. A European directive would only affect those countries in the Community and certainly – sadly – not be worldwide. Those gaps would need to be filled in a later point.
However, it represents a start. To those parents who have experienced the agony of having a child abducted and exhausted money and time trying to have them returned to their homes, that first step is a critical one.
They will be hoping the authorities’ attempts to action a scheme to stop children boarding planes or boats does take off.
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Court-appointed visitation supervisor charged in parental abduction case
August 29, 2013
Source: The Republic.com
AUGUSTA, Maine — A Maine woman appointed by a court to supervise a visit between a mother and children has been charged with two counts of endangering the welfare of a child after the mother and kids fled the state.
Jennifer Dore of Benton was the court-appointed visitation supervisor for Bethmarie Retamozzo. Authorities say she allowed Retamozzo to drive away with her children on Aug. 15 from Waterville.
Police say the 37-year-old Dore didn’t disclose the information to police until over five hours after Retamozzo left. Police said she placed the children at risk.
Retamozzo is being held without bail at the Kennebec County Jail on two felony counts of criminal restraint by a parent. She and the children were found Aug. 18 in South Carolina. She is expected in court Wednesday.
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Rallies across France for four Frenchmen held hostage for 1000 days in Niger
June 16 , 2013
Source: krmagazine
The families of four Frenchmen who were taken hostage in the North African republic of Niger in 2010, are planning rallies across France next week. Today, Thursday, June 13, marks the 1000th day of their loved ones being held captive by insurgents linked to al-Qaida in North Africa
Rallies across France for four Frenchmen held hostage for 1000 days in Niger
The families of four Frenchmen who were taken hostage in the North African republic of Niger in 2010, are planning rallies across France next week. Today, Thursday, June 13, marks the 1000th day of their loved ones being held captive by insurgents linked to al-Qaida in North Africa.
The four French hostages were variously employed by French companies Areva, Vinci and Sogea Satom when they were taken hostage on Sept. 16, 2010, in the town of Arlit, north Niger, by a group claiming to be part of al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), reports 20 Minutes. Areva employee Daniel Larribe and his wife Françoise were among seven people originally kidnapped by AQIM along with five employees of Satom, a subsidiary of the Vinci construction group. Although Françoise Larribe and two of the Satom employees were released in February 2011, Daniel Larribe and three Satom workers, Pierre Legrand, Thierry Dol and Marc Ferret have remained in captivity.
Now, the families of the four remaining Niger hostages plan to hold rallies across France in the cities of Nantes, Nimes, Aix-en-Provence, Orleans and Valence, as well as the French capital, Paris, on June 22, as a reminder of the plight of the four whose whereabouts and safety remain unknown. In a statement released Wednesday, representatives of the four families said, “A thousand days in the wilderness, away from everything and everyone. A thousand days: two and a half years, almost three. A thousand days is intolerable. They need to come back now.”
Understandably, all the families are concerned at what they see as the intolerable delay in any move to have the hostages released. During almost three years of uncertainty, the families have received only bits and pieces of information about their loved ones. When asked recently about the hostages, a spokesman for Quai d’Orsay — the French Foreign Office — had declined to comment “for security reasons and out of respect for the families,” 20 Minutes reported.
A video of the four French nationals held hostage was released by AQIM in September 2012 although it was impossible to verify when the video was filmed, (see accompanying Euronews video). The video showed the hostages in apparent good health. AQIM blamed the French government for delaying negotiations which might lead to the hostages’ release.
For the French government, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius met with hostages’ families in January 2013, telling them that “their loved ones were alive and healthy,” even though they were being held in “very difficult” conditions, reports World Nuclear News. Foreign Minister Fabius said at the time, “As frustrating as it may be, the treatment of cases of kidnapping in fact requires the utmost discretion, in the interests of efficiency and in the interest of the hostages.”
The minister confirmed to hostages’ relatives that those held captive were being properly fed and had access to medical treatment. He also said letters written to the hostages by their families had been delivered to them, adding, “Like all of us, I share the anxiety and impatience of the families in these difficult times.” Fabius concluded that the French president, government and businesses were “determined to secure the release of the hostages and their return to France as quickly as possible.”
But for the hostages’ families, another six months have slipped by since Fabius’ encouraging statement and there is concern at the apparent inaction on the part of the French government. In mid-April this year, French President Françoise Hollande had put down the lack of progress to lack of response on the part of the kidnappers saying, “We have wanted (contact) for weeks, if not months.”
Despite matters being compounded by the French intervention in Mali, there was some comfort for relatives of hostages this week. Philippe Hugon, director of research at the Institute of International and Strategic Relations (IRIS), in charge of Africa told 20 Minutes, “The various intermediate networks between the kidnappers and the negotiators are moving, they are recovering.”
Referring to the release of a French family, taken hostage in Cameroon in February and released, relatively quickly, in April, Mr. Hugon said, “The situation of the French family taken captive in Cameroon was less complex. In this [Arlit, Niger] case, the release of the hostages is more difficult because the war in Mali, where France is at the forefront, is not finished and because these hostages represent financial and strategic issues important to jihadist groups.”
Encouraging words perhaps, but as 20 Minutes reports, the families of the hostages are tiring of what they see as the “lack of explanations” from the French authorities. As René Robert, grandfather of hostage Pierre Legrand put it, “Since the French military intervention in Mali, [the hostage situation] has become a total unknown. There’s been no explanation as to why matters are taking so long. We expect deeds as well as words. We just want our guys back.”
Few in France will disagree with that sentiment.
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Child abduction by parent
April 1, 2013
Source: europa.eu
If your child has been wrongfully taken by your former partner to another EU country (without your authorisation or in breach of court decisions in the EU country where you and the child live), you can launch legal proceedings to have the child returned.
Central authorities Available languages responsible for international child abductions can help you take the necessary steps.
Once the proceedings are launched in the country to which the child was taken, the courts there will order the child to be returned – provided that all legal requirements are met.
Possible exceptions
- if the child might be in danger in the country where they lived before the abduction
- if the child is old enough to declare that they do not want to return.
In theory both you and your child should be given the opportunity to be heard by the court during the proceedings.
You cannot reverse a decision on custody by abducting a child and having a court in a different EU country make a different custody ruling.
If you want to try to reverse a custody decision, you must go to court in the country where the decision was taken.
Exceptions
These rules do not apply to Denmark or the EEA countries (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland).
Instead, Denmark, Iceland, Norway, and Switzerland are parties to the 1980 Hague Convention on Child Abduction Available languages and abduction cases involving them are treated under this convention or other international agreements.
Sample story
Making sure custody rights are respected
Irena and Vincenzo lived in Italy for 14 years, but are now going through a divorce,. In 2007, an Italian court granted Vincenzo custody of their daughter Alessandra and ordered her to be placed provisionally in a children’s home in Pisa. On the same day, Irena left Italy for Slovenia with her daughter.
A Slovenian court recognised the Italian court order and launched the procedure to return Alessandra to her father, but Irena opposed this decision.
Citing the best interests of the child, the Slovenian court granted Irena provisional custody of Alessandra, on the grounds that placing her in a children’s home in Italy could cause irreversible trauma. Also, Alessandra had expressed her desire to remain with her mother during the court proceedings in Slovenia.
Vincenzo appealed the Slovenian court’s decision and won. Alessandra was returned to Italy.
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