TARASCON: A French court on Tuesday slapped a two-year suspended sentence on a Russian woman who kidnapped her seven-year-old daughter from the girl's French father in 2009.
Irina Belenkaya was convicted on two counts of kidnapping and assault against the girl's father Jean-Michel Andre, who has custody of the child.
A court in the southwestern town of Tarascon ordered Belenkaya to pay 8,000 euros ($10,000) in damages. Andre had sought 63,000 euros.
The girl Elise was abducted on March 20, 2009 by Belenkaya and two men in the southern French city of Arles, where she lived with her father. Andre was badly beaten during the kidnapping.
Belenkaya tried to take her daughter back to Russia but was extradited from Hungary where she was detained on a European arrest warrant while trying to cross over to Ukraine on April 12, 2009.
A Hungarian court later ordered her sent back to France.
That was the second time that Belenkaya had kidnapped her daughter from Andre since their divorce in 2007.
In the first kidnapping in 2007, she managed to take her daughter to Moscow.
In January 2008, French authorities issued an arrest warrant against her but a few months later Andre took matters into his own hands and went to Moscow to collect his daughter.
Andre appeared unsettled in court on Tuesday, and represented himself because he said he did not have money to hire an attorney.
His request for a closed hearing to "protect his daughter" was however denied because prosecutors said in earlier stages the father had played a role in creating the media frenzy surrounding the bitter custody battle.
"Elise is now seven years old, and much more exposed than when she was three," Andre said.
The mother's lawyer, Bruno Rebstock, emphasised the pain she suffered from being separated from her daughter.
"Motherhood is not something to rationalise," Rebstock said.
Looking very thin, Belenkaya said in court that she went to Arles in 2009 with the sole intention of seeing her daughter.
"I didn't want to hurt Mr Andre," she said, adding that she still didn't understand "how that evening happened".
Belenkaya said she met her two accomplices by chance, and asked them to accompany her so she would not have to face her ex-husband alone. The men were of Russian origin, but never identified.
"It's difficult to believe these actions weren't premeditated" the judge said, emphasising that Belenkaya took a hotel room for the two men and the fact she wore a wig during the incident.
On several occasions the court had to remind those present that it was there to address the kidnappings and assault, and "not to psychoanalyse the couple".
"This case is an example of a childhood sacrificed on the altar of adult selfishness," said prosecutor Christian Pasta, who had asked for a three-year suspended sentence.
As he left the trial Andre called the verdict "an important step because the facts were recognised".
Belenkaya meanwhile said: "We will continue our fight to have Mr. Andre undergo a psychiatric evaluation.
"And for Elise to be able to spend vacations in Russia. I want her to have both cultures, Russian and French."
Comments
Comments are closed.