Lawyer of Russian mother appeals to Strasbourg over human rights by Finnish authorities

The lawyer of a Russian national, Rimma Salonen and her son Anton, appealed to the European Court of Human Rights over the violation of their rights by Finnish authorities.

“We have already sent the documents and demand to the European Court of Human Rights for the Finnish authorities to pay compensation to both Rimma and Anton Salonen,” Johan Beckman said. “We believe that their human rights have been violated.”

The court turned down Rimma Salonen’s appeal in April and prior to that, in mid-January, she was denied temporary custody of her 7-year-old son.

Russia regrets the Finnish court’s refusal to restore custody rights over Salonen’s son, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said in mid-April.

Anton has been at the center of a Russian-Finnish child custody dispute since his mother took him to Russia in March 2008. In 2009, Paavo Salonen, the Finnish father of the child, took him from Russia to Finland with the help of a Finnish diplomat.

The child’s father was charged in Russia in 2009 with illegally taking Anton, who has both Finnish and Russian citizenship, to Finland.

His mother was given an 18-month suspended sentence in Finland for illegally taking Anton to Russia in 2008.

Custody rights were granted to the boy’s father. The court allowed the Russian mother to see her son only twice a month in the presence of police and social workers.