Haredi boy disappeared, mother won't reveal where he is – to be arrested

A Jewish mother and a Christian father – the child disappeared. The Supreme Court ordered this week to renegotiate the verdict of an Israeli mother, who refuses to return her 13-year-old hareidi son to his Christian father living in Belgium. The mother claims that the child disappeared and his whereabouts are unknown.

The decision was made after the Supreme Court accepted the state's appeal and convicted the mother of two offenses, thereby overruling the decision of the District Court which convicted the mother of only one offense and sentenced her to imprisonment whose implementation was delayed until after the decision on the appeal.

At the heart of the affair, which has been going on for years, are the couple: the father, a citizen of Belgium, and the mother, an Israeli citizen, who met in the 90's. The two were married, a year later their son was born, and when the last was three years old, they decided to divorce. A legal battle started between the former couple for custody of their only son.

The Belgium court ruled that the mother gets custody of the boy who moved to live with her in France.

Later, the appeals court overruled the decision and ruled that the child will live with his father. In response, the mother argued that the child's uncle affected the decision ex officio in the Belgian Ministry of Justice and therefore went to court in France where she demanded custody of her son. Even before the ruling, she left with her son to Israel. Some time later, a French court rejected her claim.

The mother claimed that the child is used to a hareidi lifestyle and therefore his stay with his Christian father will cause him much harm and suffering. On the other hand, the father met with various experts and psychologists, and promised that the child will continue to maintain his hareidi Jewish life-style and that he will send him to hareidi institutions in Belgium.

Father filed a lawsuit in Israel, according to the Hague Convention, which obliges the return of children who were "kidnapped" from the parent who received custody. The claim was discussed in all legal forums in Israel, until in 2008 the Supreme Court ruled that the child should be returned to his father.

In June 2008 the mother was supposed to return the child to Belgium, but argued that the minor child disappeared from her home and she has no information on his whereabouts and is not in touch with him. Consequently, the Christian father opened criminal proceedings against her and turned back to the Supreme Court to force her to return the child, and also accused her of contempt of court. Judge Eliakim Rubinstein accepted the appeal and determined that the mother will pay NIS 700 for every day of delaying the execution of the judgment.

"We were not told anything about the mother's efforts to locate her son," Rubinstein wrote in the ruling. "If he 'disappeared' – she had to call heaven and earth for him and not have any peace and quiet. We did not hear that she did so. It makes more sense to think otherwise. Overall, and given the poor evidentiary basis which the respondent bothered - or did not bother - to deploy us, the version of the applicant seems more likely, that the "disappearance" of the child is not random and independent of the respondent, and that the respondent has ways to communicate with her son - and thus, bring to the implementation of the judgment. "

An indictment was submitted against the mother for removing the child from custody, from which she was credited, however, she is sentenced for a year in prison for violating the Supreme Court's decision to return her son to his father. The mother did not pay the fine imposed on her, and after her fine was more than 130 thousand shekels, the father sought to impose more severe sanctions.

A year ago, the judges sentenced the mother to 30 days in detention because she did not cooperate with the state.

Two days ago, the Supreme Court rejected the appeal of the mother, accepted the state's appeal and convicted the mother of two offenses of which she was acquitted at the district court. "The phenomenon of abduction of children is an evil which the entire international community, including Israel, is recruited to fight," wrote Judge Daphna Barak-Erez in her judgment.

Following the decision, the prosecution sought to worsen the conditions monitoring of the mother, to send her to house arrest with electronic shackling, for fear of her attempting to flee the country. The prosecution intends to ask the District Court to sentence the mother with prison for "a few years".

Associates of the mother say that to this day she does not know where her son is.

'בחדרי' גם ברשתות החברתיות - הצטרפו!