Divorcee fined for violating custody agreement

A BULGARIAN divorcee, who shares joint custody with her ex-husband, was yesterday fined €200 for violating a court order to return her six-year-old daughter to Nicosia from Paphos so that the child could go back to school.

The woman, who appeared in court in Nicosia, pleaded guilty to contempt of court.

The problems started last year when the woman, who met and married her ex husband in 2001, fled the country after her divorce, taking the couple’s only child with her.

The court heard that the couple had had a tempestuous relationship throughout their marriage.

The mother, who is a trained nursery school teacher, took the child through the occupied areas and from there they went on to Bulgaria. The duo’s disappearance prompted the ex-husband to start legal proceedings to force her to return home. This was done through the Justice Ministry, said her husband’s lawyer, Demetris Pavlides.

In spite of the ongoing procedures the woman decided to return to Cyprus of her own volition and moved back to Lythrodondas, where her ex-husband has a house.

The couple lived in two separate dwellings on the same property giving both parties equal access to their offspring.

“Then one day she decided to get up and move to Polis Chrysochous,” said Pavlides.

In January, after staying with her ex-husband for about a month, the divorcee decided to move to the Paphos district village where she enrolled her daughter in the local primary school.

But the child’s father secured a court order instructing the mother to return to Nicosia so that the youngster could go back to her old school in Lythrodondas. The Bulgarian woman’s failure to comply with the court order meant she was in contempt, the lawyer said.

The mother of one was yesterday fined €200 for violating the court order, plus expenses. In the meantime her husband has applied for custody of the child. At present the pair shares joint custody. Both mother and daughter are now back in Lythrodondas.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.