Minsk hopes that the Belarusian orphan girl will be returned to Belarus, Andrei Popov, spokesman for the foreign ministry, told reporters in the Belarusian capital city on Thursday.
"We believe that Italy is a law governed state and that it will finally implement an Italian court's order to unconditionally return our citizen to the Republic of Belarus, her home," he said.
Mr. Popov stressed that the "Belarusian side" does not want tensions sparked by the incident to be "artificially heated."
He reiterated that Minsk would act in strict accordance with the international law and Belarusian-Italian agreements.
Viktoriya Moroz was spending the summer in Italy as part of a program for children affected by the aftermath of the Chernobyl nuclear accident.
She was meant to have flown back to Belarus on September 8. Instead, her seasonal foster parents sent her into hiding. They say that the 10-yea-old child was repeatedly raped and tortured at the orphanage in Vileika, Minsk region.
The couple's lawyers held talks with Italy's deputy justice minister on Tuesday. The talks failed.
"The family's position remains uncompromising," the Belarusian ambassador to Italy, Aleksei Skripko, told Interfax.
"They will take a decision that will allow the girl to stay in Italy for at least one year for medical treatment," he said.
On Wednesday, the Belarusian foreign ministry issued a formal protest against the "deliberate abduction" of the child. //BelaPAN
Source: Naviny.by |
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22 September 2006