Let our children go! For a complete overhaul of Swedish family policy

Every year, over 20,000 children are seized by child welfare in Sweden. In a country that is regarded to have come so far in its welfare development,…

http://www.change.org/petitions/let-our-children-go-for-a-complete-overhaul-of-swedish-family-policy

The struggle continues for little Domenic Johannson, seized by police from his agonized parents because he was briefly homeschooled, stayed home with his mother as a preschooler, and was reportedly too affectionate and outgoing. Close observers of the Johansson state-sponsored “kidnapping” case believe the Visby Social Board is pushing Swedish courts to fast-track a new series of court challenges in an effort to have the cases quashed long before Ruby Harrold-Claesson wins her way back as counsel to Domenic’s parents, Annie and Christer Johansson.

Earlier this month, Swedish courts banished Harrold-Claesson from the case after Domenic’s  appointed public “defender” complained to the courts about her participation. Harrold-Claesson, president of the Nordic Committee for Human Rights, is a widely known and respected advocate for families in custody disputes with child protective services, and has won many such cases in Sweden, restoring dozens of children back to the rightful arms of loving parents. She has since filed an appeal to her court ordered removal.

Word has it the next series of law suits might be heard as early as the second week of July in Swedish courts on the island of Gotland. This new case, challenging the “keeping” of Domenic, was filed on behalf of the Johanssons by Harrold-Claesson just days before she was banished.
The previous series of cases challenged the initial “taking” of Domenic. In those series of suits, the Johanssons were “represented” by court appointed counsel, resulting in Domenic’s continued seperation from his parents. It is for this very reason Christer Johansson has dismissed the original court picked counsel and sought out the hard-hitting Harrold-Claesson to represent him.

June 25, 2010 marks the one-year anniversary of the violent seizure of the then 7-year-old child. So traumatized was Domenic by the acts of armed police on behalf of the Visby Social Services board, witnesses tell us he vomited during and shortly after the shocking scene when uniformed Swedish police stormed an India bound jetliner just moments before take off. We are told the boy’s mother, Annie, collapsed during the assault. The family was emigrating to India, Annie’s home country.

By the end of 2009, the Johanssons had lost all their court appeals challenging the “taking” of their only child. In the December 2009 Chamber Court decision, the court sites as justification the fact that Domenic was home schooled (at the time legal in Sweden), that his parents chose to delay or forgo immunizations (also legal in Sweden) and that the boy had two cavities in his baby teeth.

Annie is a native of India. She emigrated with Christer to his native country of Sweden in 2001 after an earth quake hit India and the couple lost everything they owned. At the time of the quake, Annie was pregnant with Domenic. The couple always planned to return to India where Annie’s large family resides, and were finally doing so the day Domenic was seized.