A north London mother has won a landmark legal battle to bring her two sons back from Russia after they were taken by their father. Rachael Neustadt, from Hendon, said Ilya Neustadt took the boys on holiday in December but never returned them.
Moscow City Court ruled that Daniel, seven, and Jonathan, five, had been illegally kept in Russia, breaching a UK High Court order. The court ordered the children to be flown back to London. Mrs Neustadt, a former teacher from the US, said Mr Neustadt, a lecturer at London Metropolitan University, ignored repeated UK court requests to return the boys.
The case is the first to successfully use the 1996 Hague Convention on child abduction between England and Russia, which Russia ratified in June and the UK signed last year. In September, the Russian court initially ordered the children's return, but Mr Neustadt appealed and lost on Wednesday.
Mrs Neustadt said she had campaigned for 11 months to bring her sons home. 'I think that day my heart started racing and it hasn't stopped,' she said. The boys' maternal grandmother, Merry Rapp, has been caring for their youngest son, two-year-old Meir, during the legal fight.
Charity Reunite International said child abduction is a hidden problem, with 506 new parental abduction cases reported last year involving 728 children. Advice line co-ordinator Joanne Orton noted that 70% of abductions are carried out by the mother, adding: 'Ultimately the one person that suffers the most is the child.'
Mr Neustadt said he may appeal, stating: 'We will finally reach some amicable solution based on compromises and not on possible actions that would be completely against the children's best interests.'
