Rimma Salonen gets suspended sentence for child abduction

Mother ordered to pay son EUR 20,000

Rimma Salonen

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Tampere resident, Russian-born Rimma Salonen was found guilty on Tuesday of illegally taking her son to Russia, away from her Finnish former husband, and keeping him there for over a year.
      Tampere District Court saw this as unlawful isolation of the child from his own environment.
      During his absence, the four-year-old Anton lost his ability to speak Finnish.
      The court found that the boy’s normal living environment was to be with his mother and father in Kokemäki and Tampere under a joint custody arrangement.
     
In the spring of 2008 Rimma Salonen secretly took her son, without the permission of the father Paavo Salonen, to Russia, a country to which the son had no ties other than the fact that his mother was from there.
      She kept the place where the boy was living a secret from the father for several months. However, Paavo Salonen found the boy in Nizhni Novgorod.
      At that time, Rimma Salonen tried to acquire Russian citizenship for the son, using false information. In addition, the Russian security service, the FSB, had placed a ban on taking the boy out of the country, which led to his transport across the border in the boot of a Finnish diplomat’s car last spring.
     
The court decided on a suspended sentence of a year and a half for a number of reasons, including the fact that the illegal act lasted for more than a year.
      The boy was kept in a foreign country, and was only allowed to see his father three times. While Anton lost his language, the conditions that she kept him in were not seen to be poorer than usual. The court also took account of Rimma Salonen’s anguish and her psychological state.
      Rimma Salonen was ordered to pay her son EUR 20,000 in damages to compensate for pain and suffering. She was also ordered to pay several thousand euros to the father in investigative and court costs. She was found innocent of charges of embezzlement.
     
Rimma Salonen plans to appeal the decision. Her lawyer Heikki Lampela says that his client does not feel that she is a child abductor, as the child was with his mother all the time.
      The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) is still investigating the possible crimes committed by Paavo Salonen and the Finnish diplomat.
     
The news agency Itar-Tass reports that Russia is planning to demand the extradition of Paavo Salonen to Russia, where he could face charges.
      In Russia, Paavo Salonen is seen to have committed a crime by taking his son out of Russia illegally.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Suspected child abductor Rimma Salonen released, banned from travel (4.8.2009)
  Something had to be done, says diplomat who brought abducted boy back to Finland (22.5.2009)
  Russian mother charged with abducting her son(16.9.2009)
  Russian mother of abducted Anton Salonen astonished at her treatment in Finland (19.8.2009)

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