A Ukrainian couple was arrested by Belgian authorities when they attempted to return their son, who was kidnapped by a biological French father in 2019, back home. Now the couple faces potential life in prison.
In April 2019, Christophe Duhamel – former deputy head of the Institut Français of Ukraine (subordinate to the French Embassy in Kyiv) – used his diplomatic status to kidnap a 3-year-old son. He was divorcing his Ukrainian wife, Iryna Ruts, when Duhamel took their son Luis out of the country. The man illegally transported Luis across the Ukrainian border in the trunk of a car with diplomatic number plates.
It’s worth noting that Christophe Duhamel was physically abusive toward his ex-wife Iryna, which served as one of the reasons for the couple's divorce. She reported domestic violence to the police, yet the case has never seen any progress.
The French husband had been regularly abusing Iryna Ruts
On Ukraine’s official request, the boy – Luis Vitaly Duhamel – was placed on Interpol’s international missing persons' list. However, this did not prevent French authorities from protecting the biological father and not dealing with the situation. It is a known fact that Christophe Duhamel resides in the Parisian suburbs with his mother and son.
The National Police of Ukraine has been conducting a pre-trial investigation into the kidnapping of a child and his illegal transportation abroad. However, there was no progress in the case for over two years.
In 2021, Iryna Ruts and her current husband Vladyslav – who adopted Luis after Christophe Duhamel had been officially deprived of parental rights – attempted to return their son back home. They were arrested in the process.
At the same time, the arrest of the couple was full of legal inconsistencies and raises a plethora of questions.
1. The rented car vehicle – with Iryna, her husband Vladyslav, and Luis in it – had been stopped 8 minutes before the French police even registered the case on the “kidnapping of a child”.
2. Despite the fact that Iryna’s husband stopped the car on the first notice of the police, Belgian officers pointed their weapons at the Ukrainians.
3. The European arrest order was only granted the following day after the couple had already been detained.
4. During the cassation appeal against the legality of the detention in Brussels, the Belgian prosecutor of the Prosecutor General’s Office alleged as an argument for keeping Iryna and Vladyslav in custody that the Ukrainians “kidnapped” a child in a “stolen” vehicle. However, the rented automobile was only declared stolen on the 8th day of Iryna and her husband’s arrest (as the couple was in detention and hence unable to return the vehicle to the rental service on time).
Now, the Ukrainian couple faces life in prison despite both Iryna and Vladyslav being Luis’s legal parents, in a case that is an apparent violation of the Ukrainians' rights. At the same time, Christophe Duhamel – a man with a domestic abuse record who had kidnapped the child in a car trunk – still faces no consequences for his actions.