Socials fast-track new case in Harrold-Claesson’s absence

Swedish Social Services Rush to Lock Jaws on “Kidnapped” 7-year-old after Family’s Lawyer Inexplicably Banned

Posted: 23 Jun 2010 01:24 PM PDT

Socials fast-track new case in Harrold-Claesson’s absence

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.

Ruby Harrold-Claesson removed from Domenic Johansson’s case in Sweden

Our good friend Ruby Harrold-Claesson has been removed from Domenic Johansson’s Case in Sweden. Please read the two reports below. One from the HSLDA and the other from WND.

Ruby Harrold-Claesson

Judge banishes family’s custody lawyer

Chief of Nordic Committee for Human Rights told she’s off case

An internationally known human-rights lawyer who had agreed to work on the case of a Swedish family whose son was taken into custody by agents of the government social-services program for being homeschooled says she has been banished from the case.

Ruby Harrold-Claesson, the president of the Nordic Committee for Human Rights and a well-known advocate for families in disputes with social-services agencies over the custody of their children, had been working on the case of 9-year-old Dominic Johansson, who was taken in a state-sponsored abduction in mid-2009.

His parents, Christer and Annie, had been in a dispute with local government officials over their plans to homeschool him as the family prepared to move to India, Annie’s home country.

Police, with instructions from social services, on June 25, 2009, boarded a jet preparing to depart on an international flight to India to take Dominic into custody, where he’s been since.

An e-mail from Harrold-Claesson obtained today by WND confirmed she would appeal the determination, and Christer Johansson told WND, also by e-mail, a new lawyer had called him to introduce himself.

“So I said, ‘Hold on a little, where is my lawyer Ruby?’ He said she was removed from the case by the court [be]cause our son’s lawyer made a complaint against her.”

He said the court apparently removed Harrold-Claesson because the lawyer made an attempt to see the child in the school setting where social-services agents have put him.

“I will not accept any other lawyer than Ruby,” Johansson told WND. “I just can’t start over again.

“Funny thing, Ruby has been asking the social services for the case documents, investigations and all, but they refused to send it to her. This lawyer on the other hand got it all before I knew about him.  

“I will refuse this lawyer and demand Ruby to be accepted!” Christer Johansson wrote…

Read more here: http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=165361

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June 14, 2010

Sweden Denies Due Process to Family

In a stunning display of bureaucratic indifference and contempt of due process rights, a local Swedish court has removed a highly qualified attorney from the Johansson case…

Appointed only after much back-and-forth with the judicial system, attorney Ruby Harrold-Claesson has now been removed from the case after she attempted to visit Domenic’s school with his parents just a few weeks ago. Harrold-Claesson is president of the Nordic Human Rights Committee and a well-known human rights attorney in Sweden who specializes in working with families whose children have been taken away from them by the state. Following her attempt to visit Domenic, social workers immediately retaliated by cutting off all phone contact.

Unlike most Swedish lawyers who are, in all cases, both appointed and paid for by the courts, Harrold-Claesson aggressively and tenaciously fights an often uphill-battle against social services agencies, guardians ad litem and judges that just go along with the recommendations of social workers. She has taken a number of cases to the European Court of Human Rights.

HSLDA Staff Attorney and Director of International Affairs Mike Donnelly commented that this action goes against the basic notions of fairness.

“Ruby’s dismissal by the court is shocking in light of the most basic understanding of fairness and due process,” said Donnelly. “One of the principal requirements of due process is that a person be represented by counsel of their choosing, to a fair and impartial judiciary, with an opportunity for a full and fair hearing of all the disputed facts. By removing Harrold-Claesson, the court has dramatically interfered with Mr. Johansson’s right to counsel and called the fairness of the entire process into question.”

Read more here: http://www.hslda.org/hs/international/Sweden/201006140.asp

Sign the petition against the abolishment of homeschooling in Sweden

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The Swedish parliament is supposed to vote about this bill on 21 and 22 June, 2010. A YES to this bill will not only mean the virtual abolishment of homeschooling in Sweden (the law will essentially become German), but also an end to the freedom of education for private schools.

A million of NO’s from all of us over the world is now necessary!
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Friends of Domenic Johansson: Outcome of May 12th Meeting … and What We Do Now

Friends of Domenic Johansson


Outcome of May 12th Meeting … and What We Do Now

At their meeting on May 12, Social services informed the Johanssons that Domenic is comfortable where he now lives in foster care and that is where he is staying. If I understand things correctly, this entire issue now goes to court. The Johanssons certainly deserve an opportunity to defend themselves in court. Annie and both Christer’s mother and father are not doing well. They need our prayers. Christer, especially, needs our prayers, too, as he is care taking for everyone in his family at this point, as well as trying to fight this mountain of injustice. The family needs the strength only God can provide. Please stay with us, friends. A long fight remains ahead.