Court suspends return of boys at centre of international custody dispute

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Kajaani District court on Friday ordered the suspension of the return of two boys at the centre of a custody dispute between their Finnish mother and American father. The Finnish Supreme Court had ordered the boys, aged 10 and 13, to be returned to their father, who had been granted custody by a court in the USA.
      The court will review the case again on Tuesday this week.
      The ruling came after Finnish officials took custody of the boys on Wednesday evening in the rural community of Ristijärvi, where they had been hiding for a month with their mother.
     
The boys' mother, Outi Koski, demanded the suspension of the implementation of the order, saying that the police had used illegal means in the apprehension of the two children.
      The decision means that the two will now remain in Finland at least until the pending issue is resolved.
      The boys' father, John Rogers, opposed the suspension.
      "He hopes that the matter would not be delayed any further, and that the mother and the media would not make the matter more difficult.", says the father's lawyer, Elina Sarelius.
      Sarelius would not say if Rogers had been in contact with the boys in recent days. The father hopes that the children would be spared media attention to help calm the situation.
      The boys have said that they do not want to return to the United States. Rogers believes that they have been manipulated by their mother.
     
On Friday, the father's lawyer submitted a statement by two child psychiatrists who had been present at a discussion in Espoo, where the return of the boys was to have been implemented.
      According to the statement, the children were initially opposed to moving back to the United States, but during the discussion, their attitude toward their father became more positive, and they finally agreed to go with him.
      The situation became chaotic when the mother arrived on the scene; she told her sons to hang on to her coattails. At this point the implementation of the court order was suspended.
     
The mother's lawyer Ville Salonen emphasises that the Supreme Court's decision concerning the Hague Treaty on child abduction was based on the law on child care and visitation rights.
      The law on implementation has separate rules on when a child can be returned to a parent against the child's own will.
      "This law, contrary to the Hague Treaty, sets a 12 year age limit. The Supreme Court has not taken issue with the implementation stage, which means that there is a new issue for the process", Salonen says.
      He says that the views of the boys have not been heard properly in the matter of implementing the order.
     
More than ten witnesses are to be called to testify on the boys' opinions and their maturity. The witnesses will include experts who have interviewed the children, as well as people who were present as the events on Wednesday evening unfolded.
      The present location of the boys is not known, but they are probably at the child psychiatric ward of Oulu University Hospital.
      Interior Minister Kari Rajamäki (SDP) has demanded that the police command of Oulu Province submit a report of the events surrounding the apprehension of the boys at the centre of the dispute.
     
In the summer of 2003 Outi Koski failed to return with her boys to the United States after a holiday visit to Finland.
      In August this year the Finnish Supreme Court ruled that the boys should be returned to their father in the United States.
      Under the terms of the Hague Treaty, custody disputes should be handled in the country where the children lived before they were abducted. 


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Mother files criminal complaint in Finnish-American child custody case (22.10.2004)
  Boys at centre of custody dispute apprehended at remote farm (21.10.2004)

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