Portuguese court returns adopted child to Russian mother

Portuguese court returns adopted child to Russian mother

19/05/2009

MOSCOW, May 19 (RIA Novosti) - A court in Portugal has returned a six-year-old girl, adopted by a Portuguese couple, to her Russian mother, Russia's TV Channel Five said on Tuesday.

The Russian woman Natalya Zarubina gave birth to a baby girl in Portugal in April 2003. The woman, who was living in Portugal illegally, was later deported from the country.

A court granted parental rights to a Portuguese couple, who had looked after the child since she was 17 months old.

The court later upheld Zarubina's request for her daughter to be returned. An appeal by the Portuguese family was rejected.

Zarubina and her daughter, who does not speak Russian, will spend two days in the Russian embassy in Lisbon before returning to Moscow on May 20. They will later return to the Yaroslavl Region which borders the Moscow Region.

TV footage showed Alexandra crying after finding out she was adopted and would be returned to her mother, who she does not know.

The Portuguese foster family said they would lodge appeals with various European courts.