MOSCOW, October 11 (Itar-Tass) —— The Finnish human rights activists intend to turn over the case of Russian citizen Anastasia Zavgorodnyaya, whose children were taken away by the Finnish Social Services, to the European Court of Human Rights, Finnish Human Rights activist Johan Backman told Itar-Tass on Thursday.
He expressed concern over the absence of delimitation of powers in the system of juvenile justice in Finland. One and the same woman who represents the Finnish Social Service acts on its own rules - makes a decision on taking children away from their parents and fulfills its own decision itself, Backman said. Thus, the legislation, the judicial power and the executive power are represented by one and the same person, which is wrong in essence, Backman explained.
On Thursday, Anastasia Zavgorodnyaya told Backman that her baby daughter fell ill. At present, the Russian woman and her daughter have been staying at a “Women’s Shelter”; in Finland pending a resolution of the Finnish court. "The baby fell ill, it has been crying and running a high temperature; on top of that the baby developed an inflammation and was prescribed antibiotics," the woman said.
The Finnish Social Service took away the children from their Russian mother, Anastasia Zavgorodnyaya, who lives in Vantaa, under the pretext that her six-year old daughter complained at school that her father had slapped her on the back. The schoolteacher reported the incident to the Social Service which took the elder girl and the twins away from their mother. Later, they also took away the baby which was barely ten days old.
As a result of efforts made by the Russian side and lawyers Anastasia Zavgorodnyaya was allowed to settle in the "Women's Shelter" with her new-born child. She was offered an opportunity to see the child as much as she wants and feed the baby with breast milk.
A decision on the fate of three other children of the Russian citizen, who were born in wedlock after Zavgorodnyaya married a Finnish citizen of Sudanese descent, has been postponed until the beginning of November.
Annually, around 10,000 children are taken away from their families in Finland in connection with suspected violence or improper living conditions at home.
Anastasia Zavgorodnyaya has denied any violence against the children in the family.