Supreme Court upholds eight-month prison sentence for parental alienation against Athens mother
The Supreme Court rejected an appeal by a mother who prevented her minor daughter from contacting her father, upholding an eight-month custodial sentence.
Supreme Court: Mother's conviction for deliberate parental alienation upheld
The Fifth Criminal Division of the Supreme Court rejected an appeal by a mother who was convicted of an eight-month custodial sentence, suspended for three years, for systematically preventing her minor daughter from communicating with her father. According to Dikastiko.gr, the Supreme Court determined that the child's resistance to contact with her father did not stem from her own will, but was the result of deliberate parental alienation on the part of the mother.
The case began in early 2016, following the parents' separation, when the mother left the shared residence taking with her the minor daughter, born in 2014. This was followed by a lengthy series of legal disputes regarding the manner and extent of the father's communication with the child.
Initially, the courts ordered that meetings between father and daughter would take place in the presence of the mother. In September 2017, however, the Single-Member Court of First Instance of Athens permitted the father to communicate freely with his daughter without the mother's presence. This decision was never implemented in practice.
On 22 and 23 October 2017, the mother refused to hand over the child to the father, resulting in criminal proceedings being brought against her. The Three-Member Court of Misdemeanours of Athens found her guilty of continuous violation of a court order and imposed an eight-month custodial sentence, suspended for three years.
The Supreme Court's ruling
The mother appealed to the Supreme Court, disputing the reasoning of the conviction decision. The Supreme Court examined all the evidence, including the psychiatric reports that had been filed, and rejected all the defence's arguments.
The court's reasoning explicitly stated that "determining whether parental alienation of the minor from his father is taking place as a result of alienating behaviour and coercion or submission by his mother does not constitute merely the circumstances or the framework in which the criminal conduct develops, but in this case also the element/condition for the commission of the criminal offence".
The court also emphasised that the mother "intentionally decided to continuously violate the aforementioned court order and not permit the minor's communication with her father, desiring his complete alienation from her, exploiting the minor child's emotional dependence and separation anxiety towards her".
The Supreme Court also rejected the defence's argument that the child's attitude towards her father was justified by subsequently diagnosed developmental difficulties. The judges noted that the minor's psychological condition was aggravated by the manner of her upbringing and the attitude of those around her.
Confirmation of sentence and court costs
The Supreme Court ruled that the decision of the Three-Member Court of Misdemeanours of Athens was fully reasoned and legally substantiated. The defence's arguments regarding procedural defects — such as the rejection of requests for adjournment or failure to recognise mitigating factors — were found to be unfounded.
Regarding the determination of the sentence, the court ruled that the court of first instance had taken into account the legal criteria: the gravity of the act, the degree of guilt and the consequences of the defendant's conduct. Following the final rejection of the appeal, the mother was ordered to pay court costs of €800.
Source: Dikastiko.gr