Maria's fate still undecided
By MIKE DOHERTY
News reporter
Above: Maria- who only spoke the Romani language when she was taken into custody- remains in the middle of an international legal wrangle
THE future of Maria, the blond-haired Roma child whose ‘discovery’ in a Greek Roma settlement led to an international media storm, remains unclear amidst rival custody claims from the Bulgarian Government and her jailed adoptive parents.
Maria is currently in the custody of the Greek charity, Smile of the Child. Last week, a custody hearing at a court in Larissa, Greece, considered claims from a representative from the Bulgarian Government who also said that the charity should not be allowed to adopt her permanently. Instead, the Bulgarian Government is claiming custody of Maria, arguing that they have the legal right to do so because Maria’s natural mother, Sasheva Rusev, is Bulgarian Roma.
However, the lawyers representing Christos Salis and Elith Dimopoulou- the Greek Roma couple charged with abducting Maria- say that the couple want Maria back. Both the couple, and many of their neighbours at the Farsala Roma township where Maria was taken from them by the Greek Police, insist that the she was loved and cared for and that all the claims that were reported in the international media; about making her beg and dance for money, are simply not true.
Speaking to Travellers' Times, Konstantinos Katsavos, one of the lawyers for the couple, says that Christos Salis and Elith Dimopoulou were unable to apply for custody, or even attend the custody hearing, because they remain in jail on charges of abduction without bail. He says that the charges should be dropped and that Maria should be allowed to “go back home” to the family she has known for most of her life.
Mr Katsavos explains that Sasheva Rusheva, who now lives back in Bulgaria, gave the infant Maria to the couple soon after she gave birth and became unable to cope whilst she was olive picking in Greece.
"There has been no kidnapping, no robbery, no trafficking and no money changed hands,” says Katsavos.
“Maria was given away by her mother and Christos Salis and Elith Dimopoulou took her in as an act of charity. This was an informal adoption and Maria’s adoptive parents are unable to fight for custody because they remain in prison,” he says.
When pressed, Konstantinos Katsovos says that he does not hold out much hope of the couple regaining custody of Maria.
“They remain in prison,” he says. “They are losing hope and it is difficult. I think it is likely that permanent custody of Maria will be given to Smile of the Child.”
He explains that the couple’s abduction charges will be reviewed in about three months when their lawyers will be able to press for them to be dropped, but that the custody decision taken from last weeks hearing is likely to be made in two to three months – or maybe even longer.
Konstantinos Katsovos is critical of Smile of the Child. He says that they have allowed no contact or communication between the couple and their lawyers and Maria, who is being looked after in one of their children’s homes. Nor have they released any information about Maria’s health and wellbeing to the couple.
Another criticism of the charity comes from Damian Mac Con Uladh, news editor and investigative journalist for Enet English, the Greek independent online news resource. The charity, alongside the Greek Police, was central in releasing much of the information to the world’s media that “fuelled” the international media storm, he says.
“The comments made by the Smile of the Child charity during the week-long search for Maria's birth parents fuelled the speculation on the girl's origins and gave rise to some of the most unfortunate headlines in the tabloid press,” he says.
Damian Mac Con Uladh claims that even the first picture of Maria released by the Police and the charity was misleading. He says that the image of Maria’s “dirty hands” was taken as evidence by the press that Maria had been mistreated by the couple she was taken from. In fact, he says, Maria’s hands were dirty because she had just been fingerprinted by the Greek Police.
“Smile of the Child, which took Maria into care on Thursday 17 October, placed the girl in a hospital for the first week, in order to carry out physical, psychological and, ominously, "anthropological" tests on her,” he says.
Damian Mac Con Uladh says that the charity “played a key part in framing how the story was reported.” He singles out the widely reported claims by Kostas Yannopoulos, Director of Smile of the Child, that Maria was taught to beg like a “dancing bear”. In fact, he says, the claims were based on a video of Maria dancing and playing at a Roma wedding celebration which was released by friends of the couple to try to convince the media that Maria had been well looked after.
Unfortunately, he says, this well-intentioned initiative back-fired when journalists went to the director of the charity for comment and Kostas Yannopoulos speculated that the video clip showed Maria being taught how to dance so that she could earn money by begging.
“It was an analogy that was repeated by dozens of news outlets,” says Damian Mac Con Uladh.
Kostas Yannopoulos, who admitted that the charity has received unprecedented amounts of international attention and publicity since the media storm began, also told Damian Mac Con Uladh, this time in an interview for an article printed in the Irish Times, that Maria had not asked after her "so-called parents".
When the journalist pointed out that she could only speak the Romani language and asked if an interpreter was being used, Kostas Yannopoulos said: "No, because we didn't risk it. But she has managed to learn a lot of Greek in these days and to communicate through paintings and her dolls."
A source close to a Greek Human Rights organisation has also raised their concerns to Travellers' Times over the treatment of Maria under the stewardship of the Smile of the Child, who have been looking after Maria since she was brought to them by the Greek Police on October 17th last ylear. The source is unsure whether Maria would be better off in Greece or in Bulgaria, but they do believe that a positive preservation of her Roma identity is a key concern.
“Preserving her identity as Roma and helping her grow to be proud of it would be part of who can better take care of her,” the source told Travellers' Times.
Travellers' Times contacted the Smile of the Child and asked if they were seeking custody of Maria and whether they were accommodating the child’s Roma identity.
A spokesperson explained that the custody hearing had been misrepresented in sections of the Greek press and that the charity had no legal interest in the case and that it was up to the court to decide what was in the best interests of the child. He explained that the charity did provide a confidential psychological and health report on Maria to the court, but they had no other input. This account tallies with the source from the Greek Human rights organization who said that the charity was not “a player” in the legal battle.
On the issue of Maria’s identity, the Smile of the Child spokesperson was more circumspect. He said that the charity looked after children from many different cultures and nationalities and that Maria was treated no differently from them, in that her care was designed with regard to her “personality” and “social background”.
He said that Maria was not the only Roma child in the home where she was cared for, so she could speak her language to them. When pressed, he said that there was no Smile of the Child staff involved in the care of Maria who could speak her Romani language.
Travellers' Times approached the European Roma Rights Centre (ERCC) in Budapest, who are currently monitoring the treatment by the Bulgarian state of Sasheva Rusev, whose younger children have also been taken into care and placed with related foster carers in her wider family.
A lawyer from the ERRC told Travellers' Times that they are going to monitor the Maria custody case and contact the legal representatives of Christos Salis and Elith Dimopoulou, because they are concerned that the rights of the child and the couple are being ignored in the legal wrangle over the custody of Maria.