Having found refuge in Poland after fleeing Sweden from the Swedish child welfare services with his three daughters, Russian Denis Lisov will not be handed over to the Swedish authorities despite a European arrest warrant, Warsaw District Court decided on Wednesday.

“The court decided that the European arrest warrant issued by the Swedish authorities violates the freedoms and human rights of citizen Denis Lisov…,” said judge Dariusz Łubowski, adding that “he was put in a no-win situation, a genuine deadlock. His children were taken away, simultaneously he was faced with impossible conditions under which they could be recovered because he was not granted the right of permanent residence. The [Swedish] authorities did not guarantee him proper rights to contact his children. The selected foster family lived a considerable distance from his place of residence.”



Judge Łubowski said that the Swedish authorities took Mr Lisov’s three children away on the grounds of “their mother’s mental illness alone, who was then put in an asylum.” The judge also said that the mother’s mental illness hampered the execution of parental authority and “was connected to the limitations of expression of will by the second parent.”



According to a psychologist’s opinion, the children are very closely attached to their father and want to live with him. “They did not feel safe in the foster family, which might have deepened their stress and result in disorders,” said the judge, adding that “the father was unable to watch this and the Swedish authorities’ actions violated the children’s good. The Swedish authorities’ actions glaringly disregarded the sensitivity of children coming from a Russian-European family.”



According to the family’s attorney, the fact that the children were placed in a Muslim family of Lebanese origin despite being raised in the Christian faith was also an important factor in Mr Lisov’s decision to escape Sweden taking them with him.



In April, Denis Lisov and his 12, 6, and 4-year-old daughters were detained by the Polish border guard at Warsaw airport while on their way to Russia.