site.btaJustice Minister Kirilov, Dutch Ambassador Ten Tusscher Discuss Case of Bulgarian Boy in Protection in Netherlands

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Justice Minister Kirilov, Dutch Ambassador
Ten Tusscher Discuss Case of
Bulgarian Boy in Protection in Netherlands


June 18 (BTA) - On Tuesday, Bulgarian Justice Minister Danail Kirilov conferred on his initiative with the Dutch Ambassador in Sofia, Bea ten Tusscher, in connection with the case of a Bulgarian boy who is under a protection measure in The Netherlands, Kirilov's Ministry said in a press release.

The child remains in The Netherlands despite a Bulgarian court decision that the boy should be accommodated at his father's home in Bulgaria.

Kirilov informed Ten Tusscher that he had closely followed the progress of the case in his previous capacity as chairman of the National Assembly Legal Affairs committee, as well as all procedures launched by the Justice Ministry since February 2014. It was then that Bulgaria, acting on behalf of the father, sent the first request to the Dutch Ministry of Security and Justice for a return of the child who had been removed from this country by his mother without his father's consent.

"I hope we will pool our efforts to achieve a favourable result while observing the law and the best interests of the child," the Justice Minister said, specifying that all prerequisites for parental estrangement are now in place because the father is denied contact with his son.

For her part, the Ambassador agreed that the two countries' central authorities under the EU Brussels II Regulation on parental responsibility must cooperate even more actively on the case. She assured Kirilov that a Bulgarian consular officer will be able to attend a court hearing in connection with the protection measure, which will take place in The Netherlands shortly.

Officials of the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry and of the State Agency for Child Protection were also present at Tuesday's meeting at the Ministry of Justice.

The claimant in the custody case is policeman Nikolay Karbanov, who argues that his wife smuggled their son out of Bulgaria some years ago. Subsequently, the mother was killed in a car accident and an acquaintance of her took care of the child. Karbanov alleges that the woman withdrew money from the child's bank account, which is why she was ordered to surrender the boy. After that, the child was taken over by the Dutch social services which placed him in foster care. The claimant insists that even though he has won a custody case in Bulgaria, the Dutch authorities do not allow him to see his child.

The case triggered a vast public response after bTV aired an interview of journalist Martin Karbovski with Karbanov, who said that the child had been given to a black gay couple. However, more than 110 people signed an open letter stating that the TV show presented the case in a manipulating, tendentious and lopsided manner.

"Even though the Dutch court's decision can be freely accessed on the Internet and provides essential information shedding light on the reasons for the decision, this truthful information was entirely omitted in the show. A number of questions remained unanswered there," the letter pointed out. IG/LG


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