Children most commonly abducted by own parents

April 21, 2015

Source: the Slovak Spectator

SLOVAKIA has one of the Europe’s highest rates of parents abducting their own children,  according to the European Commission. 

Though the country launched a new emergency system which should help with finding the missing and kidnapped children, it does not apply to so-called parental abductions.

The Nový Čas tabloid daily reported in late March about finding the most wanted Slovak Andrej Gajdár who abducted his two children in 2011 because his wife wanted divorce. It traced him to Panama, and then contacted local media, police and Interpol. The children returned to their mother in early April.

The cases when one of the parents abducts his or her children are the most frequent types of child abductions in Slovakia. Together with Belgium, it registered 6.4 outgoing applications for international parental abductions per 100,000 children aged less than 16 in 2011, EC data shows.

“Children in Slovakia are in most cases abducted by one of their parents,” Police Corps Presidium spokeswoman Denisa Baloghová told The Slovak Spectator, adding that the kidnaps are mostly reported by the second parent.

There are no cases when a child is abducted by some unknown culprit or a person outside the family, according to Baloghová.

The number of so-called parental child abduction in Slovakia has increased recently, said Andrea Císarová of the Centre for International Legal Protection of Children and Youth (CIPC), which runs under the Labour Ministry.

“We have noticed increasing tendency especially in cases of mothers who are going abroad without the consent of the second parent,” Císarová told The Slovak Spectator. The most frequent reasons are the vision of better life or new partner, she added.

Turning to the public

The police are searching for some 1,800 children every year, with 97 percent of them being found within a few days. Though the success rate is high, they are still searching for ways to improve the system, said Daniel Čechvala from the Police Corps Presidium.

One of the mechanisms which may help with searching for missing children is the AMBER Alert emergency system which Slovakia joined on March 31, becoming the 13th country in the EU to use it. The system was established in the United States in 1996, as initiative of family and friends of murdered nine-year-old Amber Hagerman from Texas. Until now, more than 700,000 children have been rescued by using it, said Tatiana Ivanič Rybanská from Child Helpline of UNICEF, who coordinates the system in Slovakia.

The system, activated by police, is unique for its swiftness and direct connection to media and other partners via whom the public gets information about the missing or abducted child. The public can then help with the search.

“Our previous experience has shown that in case of abductions the time is crucial,” Ivanič Rybanská told The Slovak Spectator, “the first minutes and hours after the child went missing are the most important.”

Up to 75 percent of children abducted by unknown person are murdered within three hours, she added.

AMBER Alert Slovensko is based on the Dutch model. Unlike the other systems in Europe, it is the first cross-border child rescue alert, said Frank Hoen, a founder of AMBER Alert Europe. This means that the website will publish information of not only children from Slovakia, but also from the Czech Republic, Poland, Austria and Hungary.

“By transcending borders, the chances of these children being found alive and well increase dramatically,” Hoen told The Slovak Spectator.

The system however cannot be used in parental child abduction cases. Police do not keep a record of their number, and they are only considered kidnappings if there are specific court rulings already in place that prevent one parent or another from having custody. If there is only a preliminary ruling, the law classifies the act as crime of violating someone else’s rights, Baloghová explained.

Císarová said that in case of parental child abductions it is usually known where the child was taken. Based on the country the CIPC starts negotiations with its partners on returning the children back home. It however cannot start talks in every country if they do not have any partner organisation there.

Tabloid aids in search

In case of abduction of two children by their father Andrej Gajdár, Nový Čas reporters were searching for them for about one year, Editor-in-Chief Júlia Kováčová said.

“The most important was that the man searched by Interpol did not learn about the reporters’ efforts,” Kováčová told the Omediach.com website.

While in other cases the tourists usually send some tips to the newspaper, this time the reporters worked only with the information they got themselves, she added.

As soon as the reporters found them, the CIPC in cooperation with the Interior and Foreign Affairs ministries got involved to help with return of children back to Slovakia, the TASR newswire wrote.

The CIPC cooperates in similar cases with its partner organisations, which prepare the materials for courts. It starts dealing with the return of children only if it is approached by its partner. It usually delivers the court decision to the parent to whom the child should return.

“The centre only informs parents about the legal state,” Císarová said.

However, in case the parent is not entitled to get the child, the CIPC acts as a central authority, especially accepting and sending new applications for child returns. The CIPC registers 50 new applications each year.

It also provides consulting to parents, offers some preventive consulting and activities, tries to find out where the child is and whether it is alright, and actively communicates and collaborates with Slovak courts and its foreign partners, Císarová explained.

“The CIPC currently prepares the national project which will concern the child abductions and removing children [from parents] in the EU and Hague Protocol countries,” she added.

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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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International parental child abductions rise with global migration

February 26, 2013

Source: TheStar.com

As cross-border relationships become more common, so do cases involving kids seized and taken to another country. Left-behind parents want changes to the law.

Stephen Watkins and sons, Alexander and Christopher. Police believe the boys are in Poland.

When a grandfather was found guilty last year of helping his daughter abduct her two boys to Poland, history was made. It was Canada’s first criminal conviction involving international child abduction by a parent.

Outside the Newmarket court where 78-year-old Tadeusz Ustaszewski’s sentencing was taking place, a group of Canadian parents held up signs and photos of their missing children, hoping to draw public attention to the issue of cross-border child abductions by estranged spouses.

Frustrated by legal bureaucracy, countries indifferent to Canadian court orders, and what they say is scant support from the Canadian government, left-behind parents have launched their own advocacy group. They plan to campaign for changes in the law to better detect and prevent child abduction.

“People paint it as a custody matter, but really, these countries have signed the international treaties and do not comply with these treaties.”

STEPHEN WATKINS – FOUNDING MEMBER OF ICHAPEAU

So far, the group involves 13 families and 16 “lost” children. It is part of a growing movement in North America for stronger enforcement of the Hague Child Abduction Convention — a 32-year-old international treaty that deals with the return of children abducted by a non-custodial parent and transferred from one country to another.

“The fact is you have this melting pot of different nationalities. You date people of different nationalities, get married, have children — and they decide to go home,” said Stephen Watkins, a founding member of iCHAPEAU (International Child Harbouring & Abduction Prevention Enforcement Act Under-law).

Related

• The Tales of four left-behind Canadians

“People paint it as a custody matter, but really, these countries have signed the international treaties and do not comply with these treaties.”

With the ease of global travel and explosion of Internet romances, the world has become smaller. Romantic relationships — and breakups — that span national borders have become more common.

These relationship breakdowns, often nasty for adults in the same locale, can be even more complicated when children and multiple government jurisdictions are involved.

A 2012 study by Nigel Lowe and Victoria Stephens at the Cardiff Law School in the United Kingdom found that the global number of Hague Convention applications to retrieve an abducted child had risen by 45 per cent since 2003.

According to a U.S. State Department report, the number of new international parental child abduction cases in the United States alone has doubled since 2006, from 642 to 1,135, with the majority of cases involving children taken to one of the convention’s 89 signatory countries.

But the child return rate is far from satisfactory. In 2009, the report said, only 436 children abducted to or wrongfully retained in other countries were returned to the U.S. Of these children, 324, or 74 per cent, were from a convention country.

“The goal of the convention is to establish clearly defined procedures for the prompt return of children . . . to provide an effective deterrent to parents who contemplate abducting their children,” said the Report on Compliance with the Hague Convention.

“Unfortunately, current trends reflect a steady increase in the number of international parental child abduction cases and highlight the urgency of redoubling efforts to promote compliance with convention obligation and encourage additional nations to join it.”

A left-behind parent can apply through what’s known as the central authority of his or her country to have a wrongfully removed child returned to the place of “habitual residence.”

The parent must provide details of the case in the Hague Convention application, which will then be sent by the central authority to the foreign state to which the child was taken.

Once the application is received, the court in the receiving country must determine if the conditions set out for the child’s return are met and if any exceptions to the return of the child exist.

Canada does not maintain national statistics on the number of Hague Convention applications and number of child returns to the country, said Carole Saindon, a spokesperson for the Department of Justice, which oversees the central authority administration in Canada.

“It is important to note that a decision by a court not to order the return of a child does not mean that the convention is not being properly applied in that state,” Saindon said in an email.

“While a left-behind parent may not agree with the child leaving Canada, the situation does not necessarily constitute a wrongful removal or retention for the purposes of the Hague Convention.”

In instances where a left-behind parent is dissatisfied with the result, she said, the parent or the Canadian central authority can raise their concerns with the foreign central authority and attempt to resolve any issues.

However, “where a left-behind parent disagrees with the decision of a foreign court not to return his or her child, he or she needs to evaluate the matter in consultation with private legal counsel,” Saindon said.

The issue of international child abduction is not new, but it received global attention in 2008 with the case of Sean Goldman, the child at the centre of an international legal battle between his American father, David Goldman, and the family of his deceased Brazilian ex-wife, Bruna Bianchi Carneiro Ribeiro.

After winning his son back in 2009 with a favourable decision by the Brazilian Supreme Court, Sean’s father and his supporters, in the same year, established the Bring Sean Home Foundation, run by volunteers for the campaign to return internationally abducted children.

Most significantly, the foundation has been pushing for the Sean and David Goldman International Child Abduction, Prevention and Return Act (HR1940) — an inspiration for Watkins, whose sons, Christopher and Alexander, were taken to Poland in 2009 by their mother, Ustaszewski’s daughter, Edyta.

“The biggest reason the convention is largely inefficient is there are no penalties for non-compliance. There are no repercussions for not complying,” said Mark DeAngelis, the foundation’s executive director.

The bill, expected to be introduced to the U.S. Congress in 2013, proposes establishing an Office on International Child Abductions to promote measures to prevent abductions from the U.S., advocate for abducted children and assist left-behind parents in resolving their cases.

Watkins, of iCHAPEAU, said Canada should adopt a similar approach and penalize convention non-compliant nations by delaying or cancelling official visits and scientific and cultural exchanges; withdrawing Canadian development assistance; and restricting travel by their nationals.

“We need to impose sanctions against non-compliant countries,” said Watkins, adding that educating Canadian officials in child welfare and courts to flag at-risk cases is also key to abduction prevention.

Jeffery Morehouse of Bring Abducted Children Home, an advocacy group for American left-behind parents, agrees.

“We need to have an open public discussion of what’s going on,” he said from Washington. “We must step up and be vocal. Enough is enough. We are not going to condone the trafficking of children to a foreign country without recourse.”

More: The tales of four left-behind Canadian parents

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Tommy Hoholm`s kamp for sine bortførte sønner

Kilde: Bortført.no

Hadde jeg visst det jeg vet i dag, hadde jeg ansatt en privat etterforsker for å hente hjem sønnene mine, fortalte Tommy Hoholm til NRK.no 28.06.11.  

I en radiodebatt forteller Justisminister Knut Storberget at han fire ganger, i løpet av det siste året, har hatt samtaler med sin statsrådskollega i Slovakia og har et intensivt opplegg for retur av Hoholm-guttene, som også involverer UD og ambassadene i Wien og Bratislava. Storberget påpeker imidlertid at Slovakiske myndigheter trenerer, og at han kan gjøre lite for å påvirke høyesterett i Bratislava.  Hør hele debatten med Storberget og Hoholm her i Ukeslutt 25. juni.

Silje Schevig og vår sikkerhetsmann Martin Waage fra ABP World Group har også snakket om barnebortføring i radioen. Hør deres uttalelser her i Dagsnytt 23. juni.

Knut Storberget forteller at han har tro på stans av barnebidrag og barnetrygd som middel for å forhindre barnebortføring, og han er fasinert over forslaget om å sette inn barnebidrag på en sperret konto i Norge. Dette kan være en viktig drivkraft til at bortføreren bidrar til at barnet kommer tilbake, mener Storberget. Men understreker samtidig at dette kun er et høringsforslag og at Bortført.no og andres meninger vil bli hørt. Tommy Hoholm har ikke noen tro på en slik ordning, og mener at bortførere kan få en “lottopremie” som belønning for å ha bortført barn.

Les også: Drapstruet far må reise ubeskyttet

 Bortført Fondet

Tommy er snart ved veis ende økonomisk. Dette betyr at han ikke lenger har råd til å kjempe for å få sine barn hjem. Les om bortført-fondet og hjelp Tommy og andre foreldre i samme situasjon.

Bortført-fondet er en ideell forening under Bortført.no med formål å samle inn midler for tilbakeføring av bortførte barn, samt drive aktiv forbygging mot barnebortføring fra Norge.

Hvert år blir om lag 70 norske barn bortført til utlandet. Foreldre henvises til lange, kostbare, og som oftest, håpløse rettsprosser i utlandet. Vi ønsker å gjøre noe aktivt slik at flere bortførte barn returneres til Norge – at norsk lov respekteres  – slik det blir mindre attraktivt å bortføre norske barn.

Vil du hjelpe?

Bankkontonummer DnBNOR: 1503 13 57109

Organisasjonsnummer: 894 664 282

Published by: ABP World Group International Child Recovery Services

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Ensidig og misvisende om barnebortføring

Av Ole Texmo, Forum for menn og omsorg 

Så er vi i gang igjen. Med barnebortføringssaker og medieoppslag hvor politikere og byråkrater får uttale seg uimotsagt. SVs Akhtar Chaudry roser politiet etter Brandbu-saken hvor to barn ble kidnappet fra barnevernet. Uttalelsen kommer i en kontekst hvor Gunnar A. Johansen fra justisdepartementet har forsikret at ”det nedlegges betydelig arbeidsinnsats i enkeltsaker i arbeidet med å iverksette og utvikle nye tiltak for å fremme arbeidet med barnebortføringssaker” (Dagsavisen 23.06.11). Hvor mye hold er det i utsagnene fra de to? Chaudry forklarer politiets innsats med at ”det skyldes nettopp at politiet er i stand til å takle disse sakene, og at regjeringens innsats på området virker”.

Brandbu-saken var ingen bortføringssak, skjønt man kunne ha grunn til å frykte at barna ville bli bragt ut av landet. Derfor reagerte man kjapt og varslet interpol. Er det vanlig i ordinære bortføringssaker? Det spesielle med denne saken var at barna ble unndratt barnevernets omsorg. Da reagerer man, med hjemmel i en ny bestemmelse i straffeloven (§ 261, tidligere 216) hvor det er prioritert å reagere mot foreldre som henter tilbake sine barn, men hvor det fremdeles er fritt frem for selvtektsmødre og bortføring over landegrensene. Politiker Chaudry vet neppe hva han snakker om. Regjeringens innsats er det ikke mye å skryte av. Det vet f.eks Tommy Hoholm som har vært i omtrent alle riksmedier og fortalt hvordan han fremdeles savner sine barn 5 år etter at barna ble bortført til Slovakia.

Regjeringen har prioritert saker hvor barnevernet krenkes, media prioriterer tilsvarende saker hvor barnevernansatte utsettes for trusler fra fortvilte foreldre som mister sine barn til et umenneskelig system. Den nye straffelovbestemmelsen viser ingen medynk med foreldre som får unndratt sine barn, samværssabotasje er fremdeles legalisert. Media stikker under stolen at mengder av mødre konstruerer falske trussel- og fiendebilder mot både etnisk norske og mot utenlandske fedre. Mot sistnevnte gruppe taes et nytt moment i bruk: kidnappingsfarer. De av oss som i motsetning til Chaudry og Johansen følger mange saker på nært hold over tid, ser at retten i sjelden grad bryr seg om bevisligheten i påstandene. Trusselbildet omfatter ofte udokumenterte påstander om vold og overgrep.

Retten skjærer noen ganger gjennom, men bidrar samtidig til å hvitvaske reell bortføring og omsorgsunndragelse fra mødrene, ved at partene presses til forlik. Denne tendensen kunne med fordel fagfolk, politikere og media vist oppmerksomhet. For statistikkføringen av barnebortføringssaker er det interessant at mange saker som anses løst, i realiteten er hvitvasket gjennom utfallet i sivilsaker. Uten at regjeringen har løftet en finger for å akte den oppskrytte Haagkonvensjonen . Dagsavisen meldte 14.07.07 med referanse til Justisdepartementets tall at ”stadig flere barn bortføres” og at 80 % av bortføringene begås av mødre. Verstingelandene er ikke land fra Midtøsten men vestlige land som Sverige og Tyskland. Dette bildet har ikke endret seg vesentlig siden 2007.

Likevel velger Dagsavisen å slå stort opp at utenlandske menn fra Midtøsten ”stikker av med barna” (23.06.11). Dette er på grensen til rasisme. I et stort oppslag får krisesentrene komme med sine ideologiske feilslutninger og fiendebilder. Krisesentrene på ingen måter er pålagt å underbygge sine påstander. ”Kidnappingsfaren er en del av kartleggingen ved inntak”, sier leder Inger-Lise Larsen. Uten noen former for dokumentasjon kan en kvinne påstå seg utsatt for vold og kidnappingsfare. Jeg kjenner til flere slike tilfeller hvor det etter hvert viser seg i rettslig behandling at det er ingen begrunnet risiko, men hvor mor allikevel får gevinst ved å sikre seg barnet og dermed favør status quo. Kidnapping av barn fra fedre snues på hodet til et projisert trussel og fiendebilde.

Les hele kronikken her: Forum For Menn Og Omsorg

International Child Abduction / Parental Kidnapping – Recovery Services

International Child Abduction is tragically a global epidemic.

Leading experts believe that due to the rapid growth in multi-national marriages and relationships, the number of children born from parents of different countries will continue to expand. Similar to all relationships, a significant portion of these marriages or partnerships will end in divorce. All too often, one of the separating parents of the child of the relationship will seek to abduct the child to a country other than where the child has lived.

This is called ‘International Parental Child Abduction’, and though there are various civil remedies available to targeted parents who have had their child abducted, the challenges they face are grave, and include first and foremost, locating where the child is located. Unfortunately for the majority of targeted parents, the financial burden for recovery and litigation falls on their shoulders. With tens of thousands of children parentally abducted each year, the reality is too many of these children never come home. ABP World Group is dedicated to assisting parents in need of assistance in locating, rescuing, and safely bringing home your abducted child.

Our intelligence and investigation abilities combined with our ability to dispatch personnel to most locations in the world offer a safe and strategic solution to protecting your most important asset: your child.

Areas of expertise:

Parental abduction

Missing children

Kidnappings

Counter Kidnapping

Anti Kidnapping

Runaway children

Reunification Counseling

Unfortunately in this day and time parental kidnapping happens and we are here to help you trough this difficult period. We are aware parental child abduction can be difficult to resolve, but we use professional operatives with the skills and expertise to help find a resolution.

One key to ABP World Group’s successful recovery and re-unification of your loved one is to use all necessary means available including, but not limited to:

Electronic Forensic Foot printing Investigations

Intelligence Gathering

Information Specialists/Skip Tracing

Evidence Procurement

Interview/Evaluation

Surveillance Special Ops

Non-Combatant Evacuation Ops

Domestic Support

International Operations

Maritime/Land/Air transport

Visit our website here: www.abpworld.com

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Storberget og hans kvinneforkjempere

Av: Kjell Schevig, Bortført.no

Aftenposten skrev 01.02.11 at Knut Storberget tar personlig affære for å få de bortførte barna til Tommy Hoholm hjem til Norge. En ny rettsavgjørelse i Slovakia sier at barna skal hjem og departementet har senest denne uken fulgt opp denne saken tett, sier Storberget til Aftenposten.

Storberget unnlater å nevne at Hoholm fikk en rettskraftig Haag-dom i Slovakia, som slo fast at guttene skulle returneres, så tidlig som i august 2009. Fra høsten 2009 til høsten 2010 har Storberget og Justisdepartementet forholdt seg  passive.

Slovakiske myndigheter har bedt om at bidragene til Tommys ekskone stoppes. Pengene fra Norge gjør det mulig å holde barna skjult for  slovakisk politi. Likevel fortsetter Nav å utbetale penger og Storberget gjør ingenting for å stoppe galskapen.  Hvordan kan vi forvente at slovakiske myndigheter skal forholde til så motstridene signaler?

Mon tro om Justisdepartementet egentlig ønsker Hoholmguttene returnert?  Vi vet med stor grad av sikkerhet at mødre i større grad enn fedre kan regne med  støtte ved barnebortføringer. Tommys sak er et godt eksempel på nettopp det. I en masteroppgave avslørte Kjersti Berg Sand, førstekonsulent i Sivilavdelingen, uforvarende hvordan saksbehandlerne har overprøvd norsk rett og handlet etter egne vurderinger. I Tommys sak hvor domstolen hadde avgjort at det er til guttenes beste å flytte hjem til faren, trosset Sivilavdelingen domstolen og mente at barna hadde det bedre hos moren. Da moren ble satt i varetekt etter en internasjonal politietterlysning, uten barna, lot Sivilavdelingen kvinnen slippe fri fordi de mente at barna måtte savne moren. Så følger Nav opp med å betale denne kvinnen for å holde seg i skjul for det slovakiske politiet, slik at barna ikke kan returneres.

Les hele saken  her: Bortført.no

Politiet kan utlevere barna

Av: Karine Østtveit, Aftenposten

Knut Storberget tar personlig affære for å få de bortførte barna til Tommy Hoholm hjem til Norge. En ny retts-avgjørelse i Slovakia sier at barna skal hjem.

– Det er nesten så jeg tør å håpe litt.

Tommy Hoholm smiler. I forrige uke skrev Aftenposten om de to sønnene hans, som ble bortført til Slovakia av moren i 2005. Før helgen kom det en ny rettsavgjørelse fra den slovakiske domstolen, som konkluderte med at barna skulle hjem til Norge. Samtidig har justisminister Knut Storberget (Ap), til tross for at han er i pappapermisjon, engasjert seg i Hoholms sak.

– Departementet har senest denne uken fulgt opp denne saken tett. Jeg har tidligere tatt opp saken med den ansvarlige statssekretæren, sier Storberget.

– Kan du love at barna kommer hjem?

– Jeg kan ikke love noe. Vi kan ikke sende politi og hente dem, vi har ingen jurisdiksjon i Slovakia. Det er mildt sagt hårreisende hvordan myndighetene har trenert denne saken, sier han.

Utrolig glad

For Hoholm er det gode nyheter. Han har den siste uken vært i kontakt med justisministeren.

– Og jeg er utrolig glad for denne støtten. Nå håper jeg at det vil føre frem, sier han.

I forrige uke så han guttene sine for første gang på lenge.

– Det var et veldig sårt øyeblikk. Den eldste gutten skalv da han forklarte seg i retten. Da er det vondt at jeg ikke får muligheten til å snakke med dem eller trøste dem, sier Hoholm.

Les hele artikkelen her: Aftenposten

Drapstruet far må reise ubeskyttet

Justisdepartementet har bedt Tommy Hoholm om å delta i et rettsmøte i den slovakiske byen Liptovsky Mikulas 27. januar. Hoholm er drapstruet i Slovakia, likevel nekter Justisdepartementet å dekke utgiftene til livvakt.

Justisdepartementet har også bestemt at Hoholm ikke lenger skal få fri rettshjelp i sin barnebortføringssak. Jostein Løvoll, seniorrådgiver i Sivilavdelingen, skriver at “man ikke skal få dekket advokatregningen av det offentlige i saker hvor det offentlige selv gir tilstrekkelig veiledning og bistand.” Bistanden fra Sivilavdelingen har imidlertid vært horribel, og det kan synes som at Justisdepartementet nå desperat forsøker å skjule alle tabbene de har gjort ved at de nedprioritere saken, og således forhindre at en ny advokat får innsyn.

Etter at Tommys to sønner ble bortført til Slovakia har han lojalt fulgt rådene norske myndigheter har gitt ham. Resultatet er en 5 år lang juridisk ørkenvandring. Selv om domstolene i både Norge og Slovakia har fattet beslutning om at Timothy og Joachim skal returneres til Norge, er likevel er ikke guttene brakt tilbake. Hva har gått galt?

Norske myndigheter har prøvd å legge press på slovakiske myndigheter og 20.10.10 sendte Knut Storberget en nokså krass telefax til det slovakiske justisdepartementet, hvor han kritiserte saksgangen. Storberget viste til Haagkonvensjonens artikkel 7 som fastsetter at: “Sentralmyndighetene skal samarbeide med hverandre og fremme samarbeidet mellom de kompetente myndigheter i sine respektive stater for å sikre at barn umiddelbart blir levert tilbake og for å nå de øvrige mål som er satt i denne konvensjon.”

Utenriksminister Jonas Gahr Støre var på statsbesøk i Slovakia sammen med Kongeparet i oktober 2010. Gahr Støre fortalte da til TV2 at han ville ta opp den manglende returen av guttene. Les saken på TV2s nettside 25.10.10

I ettertid viste det seg imidlertid at Jonas Gahr Støre ikke diskuteret bortføringen av Hoholmguttene gjennom  offisielle kanaler. Hoholm fikk vage signaler om at Gahr Støre visstnok hadde uformelle samtaler på gangen, men det finnes ingen  offisielle dokumenter som viser at saken er diskutert. Kan vi stole på Gahr Støre? Finnes politisk vilje til å få hjem Hoholmguttene?

JUSTISDEPARTEMENTETS TABBER I HOHOLMSAKEN

Etter bortføringen har moren, Martina, ikke vist særlig interesse for å ta seg av sønnene sine. Timothy og Joachim har stort sett bodd hos besteforeldre. Martina bor i en annen by. Storfamilien er likevel svært opptatt av å ha guttene i sin besittelse, på grunn av underholdningsbidragene som Tommy må betale. En norsk tusenlapp er uforholdsmessig verdifull i et fattig land som Slovakia, og Martinas foreldre har benyttet anledningen til å førtidspensjonere seg. I perioder hvor familien har følt fare for at politiet skulle hente guttene, har Timothy og Joachim blitt gjemt bort i et munkekloster i fjellene. Guttene har mistet så mye undervisning at de må ta ett skoleår på nytt.

Les hele saken her: Bortført.no

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Hva gjorde Gahr Støre i Slovakia?

Av: Bortført.no

Utenriksminister Jonas Gahr Støre var på statsbesøk i Slovakia sammen med Kongeparet. I denne forbindelse ville han ta opp saken om de to guttene som ble borført av sin mor til Slovakia med landets myndigheter. Les saken på TV2s nettside 25.10.10

Nå viser det seg imidlertid at Jonas Gahr Støre ikke har tatt opp bortføringen av Hoholmguttene gjennom  offisielle kanaler. Hoholm har fått vage signaler om at Gahr Støre visstnok har diskutert saken på gangen, men det finnes ingen  offisielle dokumenter som viser at saken er diskutert.

Kan vi stole på om Gahr Støre la vekt på å få hjem Hoholmguttene? Vi vet med sikkerhet er at norske myndigheter har holdt Tommy Hoholm for narr flere ganger, samt at utenriksministeren har blitt avslørt etter å ha behandlet sivile saker lettvint tidligere, som for eksempel i Martine-saken.

TV2 hadde en reportasje 14.10.10 med overskriften: “Støre kontaktet aldri Norges mann i Jemen”. Bakgrunnen for saken var at: Norges generalkonsul i Jemen ble aldri bedt om hjelp da Farouk Abdulhak rømte til hjemlandet etter drapet på Martine Vik Magnussen.

VG meldte 28.01.10:“Kravet om en utlevering av drapsettersøkte Farouk Abdulhak kommer etter alt å dømme ikke til å bli tatt opp med Jemen under toppmøtene i London.”

Ut i fra disse erfaringene med med Jonas Gahr Støre, sitter vi igjen med en ekkel fornemmelse av at vår utenriksministeren vår forholder seg nokså likegyldig til slike saker.