My client is an Italian living in Milan. His wife, a Russian citizen, secretly left Italy with their common child a few years ago without his consent. For more than 3 years, the father has been limited in communicating with his son, both in person and on the phone.
After repeated unsuccessful attempts to establish contact with the mother in order to restore parental communication with the child, the client turned to me for legal assistance. After consulting with fellow lawyers from Italy, we decided to initiate a criminal case against the mother of the child, which may motivate the mother to return the child to Italy.
Unlike Russia, such actions of a parent in Italy are criminalized. So, according to Art. 574 bis of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Italy, kidnapping and keeping a minor abroad is a crime punishable by imprisonment for a term of 1 to 3 years.
The main difficulty was that in Italy a citizen can have a "residence address" (only for financial matters) and a "domicile address" (where the person actually lives). We knew the address of registration in Russia, but in order to initiate a criminal case, the prosecutor of Milan needed the address of the actual place of residence of the mother in order to send her an official summons.
With the support of colleagues - private detectives, the mother and child were found in Russia within 2 days. Yekaterinburg turned out to be their new place of residence. We have identified their actual place of residence up to the apartment. Based on the results of the investigation, a detailed written report was prepared for the client in Italian and English. The report contains photo and video evidence, as well as other documents for the Italian prosecutor, about the actual whereabouts of the mother and child.
Currently, a criminal case has been initiated against the child's mother in Italy, where the child's mother faces a real prison sentence. In Russia, a civil litigation on determining the place of residence of the child with the father continues at an active stage.