OSLO, January 25 (Itar-Tass) — Russian woman Irina Bergset intends to fight for the adoption right over her son in the Supreme Court of Norway after the court of second instance turned down an appeal from her, retaining the right to bring up her younger son – Norwegian citizen Bjorn Mikael Bergset by his father, Russian Consul in Norway Artyom Barkov told Itar-Tass on Thursday.
Three Norwegian judges have earlier made an unanimous ruling to ban the communication between the 6-year-old boy and his mother “over a real threat for his kidnapping.” The Russian woman is also to indemnify the court costs of 179,000 Norwegian krones (over 970,000 roubles) to her former husband Kurt Bergset. The boy, who is banned to leave Norway, will continue to live with his father in Norway. The lawyers of the Russian woman will appeal the court verdict in the Supreme Court of Norway. If the appeal is accepted the court will launch the merit court proceedings. If the appeal is not accepted or the court passes a verdict, which will not suit the mother of the child, she will address in the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
The Bergset case became highly publicized in March 2012, when the Russian woman, who got married again in 2005 and went to live in Norway, turned to the Russian Embassy in Oslo. She noted that the Norwegian children’s protection service (Barnevern) handed over her two underage sons in the foster families. The woman claimed that her former husband repeatedly committed sex crimes against their common child Bjorn Mikael. Later Alexander Frolov, the son of the woman from her first marriage, stated that the adoptive father had sexual perverted intentions towards him.
However, the court did not find any evidence for the sex crimes committed by Kurt Bergset towards his son. During the investigation the Norwegian law enforcement agencies and medical experts did not find the evidence that proves the father committed a heinous crime against his son.
In September 2011 the Russian Investigation Committee opened a criminal case against Kurt Bergset. The Norwegian side received an official request for several investigation actions for the Russian side to find concrete details of the incident. The Norwegian Justice Ministry gave apologies for the delay only last December despite repeated requests from the Russian Embassy to speed up the court proceedings. The ministry pledged that the response will be ready by the end of January 2013. The Russian Embassy has not received a response from Norway yet. Meanwhile, it should be taken into account that the powers of the Russian side are restricted in this case, because Irina Bergset’s younger son is not a Russian citizen, and the suspect is also a foreign citizen.
The woman is staying with her elder son in Russia. Alexander escaped from the foster family last August and with the help of the private detective from Poland managed to get to the Polish-Russian border, where he was detained together with his mother. It took more than two months to attain his comeback to Russia through the court. This episode causes concerns over Bjorn Mikael’s possible kidnapping by his mother.