Estranged Russian mother to appeal French court order

A French court order that awarded a Frenchman custody of his three-year-old daughter on Friday will be appealed "on Monday or Tuesday" by his former Russian wife, a Russian lawyer said.

Three-year-old Elise, who is a dual French and Russian citizen, was returned to her father, Jean-Michel Andre, after being taken away from her mother, Irina Belenkaya, following the latter's arrest in Hungary in March on a charge of abducting the girl from Andre. Belenkaya was taken into custody while she was trying to take Elise across the border to Ukraine.

Belenkaya remained in detention in Hungary until she was extradited to France on May 27 but was released from custody the day French police brought her to France.

"Of course, I believe that the court ruling is unfair after all, because the court should have taken into account that the child needs to have full-scale contact both with her father and with her mother. We respect the ruling of the French court but will appeal it," Anatoly Kucherena, a lawyer and a member of the Russian Public Chamber, told Interfax.

"We hope that the court will come to a decision and [Elise] will be able to have equal contact with her father and her mother," he said.