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Chechen mother, children reunite after being separated by Danish authorities

Several weeks ago, another Polish court issued a similar verdict in a case that also involved Russian children

WARSAW, December 17. /TASS/. A Chechen mother and her five children, who were earlier separated by the Danish child protection authorities, are returning to Russia together, the family’s Polish lawyer Babken Khanzadyan said.

"The case is closed. Once again, the Polish authorities did not permit to tear the family apart. On Monday, the Dombayevs flew to Moscow, from where they will head to Grozny. Their relatives are waiting for them there," the lawyer said.

Zalina and Artur Dombayev have received a refugee status in Denmark and lived there for many years. After the couple filed for divorce in late 2017, Danish child protection services took their five children (15-year-old Muslim, 14-year-old Elina, 11-year-old Malik, 10-year-old Mansur and three-year-old Sofia) and placed them in three foster families.

The parents attempted to take the children out of Denmark via Poland, but the Danish authorities promptly reported them as missing to the EU information system. The woman and her children were detained by Polish border guards in the city of Terespol, on the border with Belarus.

In Poland, the children were once again placed in a foster family. Polish lawyers filed a court request to return the children under the custody of their parents, and a court in the city of Biala Podlaska restored their parental rights.

Several weeks ago, another Polish court issued a similar verdict in a case that also involved Russian children. Russian citizen Denis Lisov and his three daughters, whom he had taken from a Swedish adoptive family to Poland in April, were allowed to return to Russia together.

In 2017, Swedish juvenile judicial bodies took the girls from their father after their mother had been hospitalized with a grave mental disease and placed them in a foster family of Lebanese origin. In late March, Lisov, who was not deprived of his parental rights, took the daughters from the foster family. The Swedish authorities raised alert for the children.

In early April Lisov and his three daughters were detained by Polish border guards at Warsaw International Airport from where they planned to fly to Russia. Russian diplomats and lawyers in Poland defended the Lisovs, drawing the attention of the Polish law enforcement bodies to the provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, according to which children cannot be separated from their parents.