Prague, Sept 15 (CTK) – Eva Michalakova, a Czech mother whose two sons were taken away from her by the authorities in Norway in 2011, has appealed the June Norwegian court verdict that stripped her of parental rights and banned her from seeing the boys, Czech lawyer Pavel Hasenkopf told CTK yesterday.
The Norwegian court, nevertheless, did not approve a previous proposal by Norwegian bodies to put up the younger boy for adoption.
Hasenkopf said the appeals court will first decide whether to deal with the case.
He did not rule out that the case might end at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, if Michalakova failed to succeed in the proceedings in Norway.
Shortly after the Norwegian verdict was known in June, the Czech Foreign Ministry said it would support Michalakova again if she appealed the verdict.
The Norwegian child welfare service took Denis, now 11, and David, now 7, from their mother in 2011 on suspicion of abuse, neglect and maltreatment. The suspicions did not prove true, but the court found the uncovered facts serious and left the boys in foster families, each in a different one.
Last year, the authorities proposed that the younger boy be put up for adoption, but the appeals court did not approve the plan in June.
The Norwegian side has kept silent on the case since the beginning. Some media and experts say it is impossible to assess the case clearly based on the position of one side of the controversy only.
The Norwegian embassy in Prague previously wrote on its website that the media need not present the issue based on all relevant information, and that the Norwegian institutions, bound by the duty of silence and in the effort to protect the boys, cannot react to incorrect allegations.
rtj/dr/kva
