Lawyers for U.S. woman earlier accused of attempting to smuggle baby from Ukraine may appeal to European court to return child
Kyiv, December 22 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Lawyers for U.S. woman Jeanette Runyon, who was accused by Ukrainian law enforcers three years ago of trying to take a baby abroad, are taking measures to establish the whereabouts of the child and are planning to seek the baby's return to the U.S. citizen at the European Court of Human Rights.
Lawyer Yuriy Aksionov said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine on Tuesday that Ukrainian law enforcers who accused Runyon of attempting to smuggle the baby from Ukraine had not established the woman's guilt and closed a criminal case after eight months of the investigation. However, the lawyer said that his client, which is the legal mother of the child, had not seen her daughter for the last three years and does not know where she is.
Lawyer Kostiantyn Kuts said that the reason for the opening by the police of criminal proceedings against Runyon was the misunderstanding of the nuances of surrogacy, which is legally allowed in Ukraine.
Another lawyer for the U.S. woman, Artem Lykhvar, said that the lawyers had appealed to the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine and Kyiv City State Administration regarding the whereabouts of the child and Runyon's right to maternity. He said that they had not obtained official responses, but unofficially they had been told that the child was under the guardianship of one of Kyiv's families.
Lykhvar said that those who represent the interests of the U.S. woman in Ukraine had submitted respective letters to Verkhovna Rada human rights commissioner Nina Karpachova.
"If we do not ensure the return of the child to Runyon, then we'll be obliged to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights," he said.
Kuts added that the U.S. citizen had no claims, including financial ones, against the Ukrainian authorities. He said that Runyon wanted only to establish the whereabouts of her daughter and take her to the United States.
Runyon said at a press conference in the Skype mode that she had come to Ukraine to treat infertility. The clinic she applied to helped her find a surrogate mother and properly arranged all of the necessary documents. She paid for medical services and sent money each month to the surrogate mother. The problem, Runyon said, was that the child was born earlier than expected, and she arrived in Ukraine two days after the baby was born. This, in her opinion, became the reason for claims by law enforcement officers. She noted that she had learned from a response by the Prosecutor General's Office to her inquiry that all of the charges against her had been dropped and that the child was at an orphanage.
As reported, in November 2007, a U.S. consul general appealed to the police that a 56-year-old U.S. woman was trying to take a baby girl abroad.
Law enforcers established that on November 5, the American woman had asked the consular section of the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine to register for permanent residence in the United States allegedly her child - a girl who was born October 10, 2007. The woman provided a birth certificate indicating that she is the baby's mother, while her husband, also a U.S. citizen, is the father of the child.
On September 22, 2006, the woman turned to the ISIDA private maternity hospital to find a surrogate mother for her future child, because she could not become a biological mother.
The police claimed that the woman who became a surrogate mother for a child had also been misled.
"This was a purchase and sale agreement: the American woman paid $12,900 to the maternity hospital and $18,950 to a surrogate mother," the police said.
The investigation office of the Shevchenkivsky district department of police in Kyiv investigated a criminal case against the woman under part 3, Article 149 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (human trafficking or an illegal agreement with respect to a person).