U.S. authorities have launched a criminal case against Torry Hansen, a woman who shipped her adopted son back to Russia on a one-way flight, the Russian ombudsman for children's rights said on Wednesday.
In a highly controversial act that has caused uproar worldwide, 7-year-old Artyom flew to Moscow alone in early April, with a note in which his U.S. adoptive mother claimed he was "psychopathic" and she would not take care of him any longer.
"[U.S.] representatives told us today that a criminal case was launched against [Hansen]. She is to be summoned by police to give testimony," Pavel Astakhov told the Rossiya 24 TV channel.
He said that the woman should be convicted because "putting your child on a plane for a trans-ocean flight with an expired visa and without proper food and supervision" is "clearly banned according to U.S. law."
In addition, he said, Artyom's rights were obviously violated.
"It turned out that if she had rejected her child in the U.S., she would have been obliged to pay him child support until he is of age. She wanted to avoid this, too," he said.
The case led to repeated calls for a ban on foreign adoptions of Russian children. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said his country could freeze child adoptions by U.S. citizens until the countries sign an intergovernmental agreement on adoptions.
Russia is one of the largest sources of adoptions to the United States, accounting for about 10% of foreign adoptions, but the issue has become controversial in recent years following numerous incidents involving the mistreatment of Russian children in the United States.
MOSCOW, May 12 (RIA Novosti)
