New Custody Dispute Flares Up in Finland

By Irina Titova

The St. Petersburg Times

Published: February 26, 2010 (Issue # 1551)

Finnish police have opened criminal proceedings against Russian mother Inga Rantala, accusing her of assaulting her seven-year-old Russian-Finnish son Robert, who has been put in a children’s home by Finnish social workers.

The case of Rantala, a native of the Leningrad Oblast who is married to a Finn and lives in the Finnish town of Turku, was widely reported in the Russian media on Thursday, with reports broadcast on national television channels.

Speaking to The St. Petersburg Times on Thursday, Rantala said that she had received court papers on Wednesday informing her that the Finnish side had decided to deprive the Rantalas of their parental rights.

The legal documents did not state when the official court hearing on the matter would take place, but did say that the Rantalas were not invited to attend the hearings, Rantala said in a telephone interview from Finland, where she has lived for the past nine years.

Rantala said that she hadn’t beaten her son and she couldn’t understand how the situation had arisen.

“I didn’t beat Robert, and nor did anybody else in the family,” said Rantala.

“On the contrary, Robert is a child who has received plenty of attention, whom we sent to a good school, and who attended hockey, skiing and swimming lessons. I can’t for the life of me understand what’s going on,” she said.

“What most worries me in this situation is my son, who for unclear reasons has been taken away from his family and home at the age of just seven, who is stressed out, and who has to go through all this questioning. If they think I’m guilty of something, let them put me in prison, but don’t let them torture my child,” she said.

Russian diplomats have begun negotiations with the Finnish side about the case, Rantala said. She said that when a Russian diplomat spoke to Robert, the boy said that he “wanted to go home to his mom and dad.”

Representatives of Finnish social services took Robert away from his parents on Feb. 4. Under the terms of their decision, the boy’s mother cannot see or call her son, while his father is allowed to visit Robert only in the presence of social workers.

The reason for the intervention of Finnish social workers was information they received from Robert’s schoolteacher, who said that on Jan. 28 the boy told her that his mother had smacked him the day before, Fontanka reported.

On Feb. 4, police questioned the boy, who cried and said that his mother had not beaten him and that he didn’t want to go to a children’s home, Fontanka quoted Johan Backman, head of Finland’s Anti-Fascist Committee as saying.

“They said that my husband has an alcohol problem, but it’s not true. He drinks beer sometimes, but who doesn’t?” said Rantala.

Russia’s Ombudsman for Children’s Rights, Pavel Astakhov, has promised to handle the case himself.

“I will personally monitor the situation,” Astakhov said. “We have already submitted a request to the Ministry of the Interior for more information. Finland’s authorities will have to provide all their evidence through the ministry’s channels,” Astakhov said, Interfax reported.