A lawyer with the Czech Foreign Ministry makes unprecedented move
Written by News Desk
An official form the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs has sent Norway a 10-page document concerning the case of Eva Michaláková and her attempt to get her two sons back.
The sons were put into foster care in 2011 by Child Welfare Service of Norway (Barnevernet), and Michaláková has been trying to get them back ever since.
Her contact with them has been limited.
The document was drafted by lawyer Martin Smolek of the Czech Foreign Ministry. He has been involved in a number of international cases, according to media reports.
Smolek has previously represented the Czech Republic’s interests before the Court of Justice of the European Union.
He will be the first lawyer to represent the interests of a foreign country in a family dispute in Norway, and says that he will bring a new angle to the five-year-old case.
Norway is not part of the European Union.
He claims that the reasoning used to deprive Michaláková of her parental rights went against the European Convention on Human Rights as well as a UN convention.
The Norwegian court failed to take into account the mother’s rights and her ability to care for the children, and instead looked only at what would happen to the children if they were taken out of foster care after so many years.
So far, Smolek does not have plans to attend the hearings in Norway, as such a move is unprecedented.
Instead he is trying to influence the reasoning of judge in the case through documentation. “The written phase of the case is crucial,” Smolek said.
Currently the case has been adjourned due to the lack of a translator, and no new date has been set. A hearing was supposed to take place Feb. 23–26.
President Miloš Zeman has also tried to intervene in the case, but Foreign Minister Lubomír Zaorálek previously said that the proposal is in conflict with existing international treaties.
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