Arrest warrant issued

Mother: “Wasn’t allowed to see son for nine months”

Salzburg Regional Court

(Bild: Markus Tschepp)

A Romanian father did not bring his child (10) back home after the semester break. The mother complains in the regional court: "Couldn't see my son for nine months". More than two years after the incident, the man is now wanted by warrant.

A Romanian man (43) was due to appear in Salzburg Provincial Court on Thursday at 2 pm - as the accused. Because he took his son (10) and never brought him back. Child abduction is the name of the offense.

"Not for a second" was she allowed to see the child alone

He was absent from the trial without excuse, the judge emphasized, and decided to hear the case in absentia. She called the child's mother to the witness stand. "He picked him up for the semester break and never brought him back," the woman explains. That was in February 2022, a few months after the divorce. Initially, father and child were in Sweden, but since November 2022 they have been in Romania - in the parents' hometown. The mother knows this "through personal contacts", she says.

It is scandalous how the Romanian authorities are delaying and handling this case. After more than two years, something should finally be done. After all, this is about a child. The boy belongs in Austria.

Alexander Schuberth, Rechtsanwalt der Mutter

 "I was only allowed to see him again after nine months," she complains. And since the child was taken away, "I haven't spent a single hour alone with my son." The father torpedoes everything and argues that the son no longer wants to see his mother. "The child is under the strong influence of my ex-husband," she says. Although she has sole custody and a court order, the Romanian authorities do not want to act.

That is why the father is to be arrested. The public prosecutor applies for an EU arrest warrant. The judge adjourned the trial until then.