A 17-month old girl allegedly abducted by the surrogate who gave birth was returned to her biological mother, it was revealed Friday.
According to reports in the Turkish Cypriot press, little Sofia is back in the hands of her biological mother, Russian national Olga Mirimskaya, 55, after the surrogate mother, Svetlana Bezpiataia, 40, also a Russian, was arrested by the authorities in the north, together with three Greek Cypriots and an Albanian suspected of involvement in the child’s alleged kidnapping.
The child was handed over outside Tymbou airport on Wednesday after the authorities there examined an application for her return to the biological mother. According to daily ‘Kibris’, the mother returned to Ankara after securing the child.
Authorities in the north on Thursday handed over to Greek Cypriot police the three Greek Cypriots and the Albanian after taking them to court and fining them for illegal entry.
An arrest warrant had been pending against the surrogate mother since it was issued by a court in the republic last January. She had taken the child from Russia and brought her to Cyprus on the father’s orders.
Mirimskaya, who was unable to have children with her businessman husband Nikolay Smirnov, used Bezpiataia as a surrogate but before Sofia was born, the millionaire couple had already separated. The child was never given to the biological mother who since then, sought legal measures for her return.
When Mirimskaya and Smirnov decided to have the child in August 2014, they came to an agreement with Bezpiataia, signing a formal contract in accordance with Russian law.
Mirimskaya, a wealthy businesswoman, subsequently launched a legal battle against Bezpiataia, requesting the court to annul Sofia’s birth certificate, which Bezpiataia obtained, and recognise her as the legal mother.
Russian courts vindicated her issuing an arrest warrant for Bezpiataia which remained pending, as did another issued by a Cyprus court, as she could not be found.
Mirimskaya, who tracked them to Cyprus, claimed her former partner was behind Bezpiataia’s disappearance and alleged he paid for her to come to Cyprus, an accusation that Smirnov, who lives in the United States, denied.
Originally, Cyprus police said they had received information from Interpol Moscow that the surrogate mother had put the baby up for sale for $13,454.
