Norwegian court vindicates girl’s ‘wanted’ father

A Norwegian father, who is officially still wanted in Cyprus on kidnapping charges, has been vindicated by a court in his native country after it emerged that the Cypriot mother of his young daughter, who was brought to the island unbeknownst to him, had filed false claims to sway a custody hearing in her favor.

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According to daily Politis, a Norwegian judge found that the Cypriot mother of little Marie Eleni had filed false claims with Cypriot courts, in a stunning case of child custody battle between Cyprus and Norway.

Politis said the Norwegian court found that the mother and her Cypriot lawyer had “fabricated evidence that were not based on true facts,” with a judge hearing evidence of perjury, false claims, and forged documents apparently aimed to prove to a Cypriot judge that Marie Eleni had been attending kindergarten in Nicosia at a time when she was in fact living in Norway.

“This is what had prompted a Cypriot court to grant child custody to the mother,” Politis said on Thursday.

The case dates back to 2017, when Norwegian dad Leif Torkel Grimsrud orchestrated and executed a plan to reunite with his daughter. On 27 April 2017, he took his daughter Marie by the hand outside her kindergarten in Nicosia, in front of her Greek Cypriot mother, setting in motion an unprecedented manhunt where he was accused of kidnapping the little girl.

He eventually got away and reportedly emailed the mother shortly after the abduction to tell her that Marie-Eleni was with him in an undisclosed location in Cyprus and that he wanted a fair hearing. He then travelled back to Norway with his daughter.

Marie Eleni was born in 2013 in Norway and was brought by her mom to Cyprus six years ago. Reports said the mother drove outside Norway and managed to obtain Cypriot travel documents without the father's consent, eventually flying to the island with her daughter who was a Norwegian citizen.

In 2016, the father attempted but failed to reunite with his daughter, after Norwegian courts referred him to Cypriot justice telling his lawyers he would need to go through the local court system.

But after getting nowhere through the court system in Cyprus, the dad vowed to get his daughter back through other means, reports said.

According to the mother’s Cypriot lawyer, Marie Eleni, who was 4 years old at the time, was snatched from the hands of the mother who had custody in Cyprus. The incident took place in Dasoupoli, Nicosia, with police responding immediately to allegations of a “violent abduction by hooded men.”

Patrol cars were scrambled within minutes of the abduction complaint, blocking highways, ports, and checkpoints, in an unprecedented manhunt, along with a helicopter trying to locate Grimsrud and the little girl.

The father later claimed there were no hooded men but he was the one who took the girl, adding he never hit the mother and he simply called his daughter to him and took her by the hand.

Sources later told Knews that Grimsrud was feeling helpless because the mother of his child had gained “full parental custody” in a family court in Nicosia without his knowledge or input and without him being able to challenge the decision.

It was not clear when the courts made that decision and court proceedings of the custody hearing in Cyprus were not made available.

A lawyer for Grimsrud, Yvonne Larsen, had stated in the past to VG News, a Norwegian media outlet, that in her opinion the legal system in Cyprus did not even provide even minimum rights to a father.

“It is a legal system that decides the future of a child without hearing the other side,” she said.

Knews was told by Norwegian sources that the father had been unaware of any custody decision in Cyprus, following what his lawyers described as an initial abduction by the mother, who allegedly took her daughter from Norway, drove to Sweden in the family car, and then the two of them flew to Cyprus.

After Grimsrud took his daughter back, the mother’s lawyer took the case to a Norwegian family court, which ruled that Marie Eleni ought to be returned to her legal guardian at her legal place of residence. Mom and daughter were reunited in October 2017 when the mother and her lawyer traveled to Norway for that purpose, and for both parties to have a sit down to discuss future visitations between the dad and the girl.

But the meeting never took place. The same source told Knews that the mother and her daughter flew back to Cyprus one day before the meeting.

Grimsrud was never prosecuted in Cyprus but five others faced kidnapping and misdemeanor charges in the Dasoupoli case.

A post on Interpol’s site on Thursday still listed five charges against Grimsrud, including conspiracy to commit felony, conspiracy to commit misdemeanor, kidnapping from lawful guardianship, abduction of girls under sixteen, and assault.

But Grimsrud ought to have been declared innocent all along, according to the Norwegian judge, citing evidence of Marie Eleni lawfully residing in the country including 21 visits to a health provider in Halden all through October 2015, as well as several trips to a physiotherapy doctor and a medical doctor.

Politis also said that the little girl had even started attending Doremi kindergarten in Halden back in November 2015.

Knews has also learned that Grimsrud’s lawyers have taken issue with Cypriot judicial authorities over failure to follow procedures and deadlines set by the Hague Convention.