Langbahn Team – Weltmeisterschaft

Elise André incident

The Elise André incident is a tug-of-war of kidnappings of the three-year-old girl Elise André-Belenkaya (Russian: Элиза Андре Беленькая) in a dispute between her parents, father Jean-Michel André and mother Ирина Беленькая, over child custody during 2007–2009.[1] The girl was abducted and moved across the border at least three times since parents' divorce in 2007.[2]

Both parents were granted custody rights from their own countries.[3] In 2009 there were about 50 child custody disputes between Russia and France. The case of Elise is aggravated by the fact that Russia is not a signatory of the 1980 Hague convention on civil aspects of child abduction, used to resolve similar cases.[2]

The last kidnapping (by mother) was stopped in Nyíregyháza, Hungary in April 2009 and in May the Hungarian court decided that the mother be extradited to France[4]

In 2012 the mother was facing a three-year suspended sentence from a French court in Tarascon for double abduction, in November 2007 and in March 2009.[3][5] Mother's lawyer asked for a suspended sentence.[6] Eventually she received two years of sentence suspended for five years.[7] The Russian Ministry of Foreign affairs concluded that the decision of the French court had been balanced.[8]

References