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Russian who took his daughters from Swedish foster family arrested in absentia — media

A court in Warsaw ruled on April 3 that the children should stay with their father

STOCKHOLM, April 11. /TASS/. A district court in Sweden’s Orebro arrested in absentia Russian citizen Denis Lisov, who took his three daughters from a Swedish foster family and brought them to Poland, the SVT channel has reported.

"The man, aged 40, was arrested by the Orebro district court after he abducted his children in late March and took them to Poland," the TV channel said. "The crime he is suspected of - child abduction - is a grave one."

A court in Warsaw ruled on April 3 that the children should stay with their father and obliged the family to stay in the Polish capital while their request for a refugee status is being processed.

The Lisovs’ case

In early April, Russian national Dmitry Lisov and his three daughters aged 12, 6 and 4 years were detained by Polish border guards at an airport in Warsaw airport. They arrived in Poland on a ferry from Sweden where they had lived.

In 2017, Swedish juvenile welfare authorities removed the girls from their father’s home after Lisov’s wife, who was suffering from a severe mental illness, had been admitted to hospital. The girls were placed in a foster family of Lebanese descent.

A few days ago, Lisov, who had not been deprived of his parental rights, took his daughters from the foster family. Sweden put them on a wanted list. In Warsaw, Russian diplomats and lawyers stood up for the Lisovs, arguing that under the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), children cannot be separated from their parents.