MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 07th June, 2019) Russian national Bogdana Osipova has been sentenced by a US court to seven years in prison for international parental kidnapping and extortion after taking her kids to Russia without the father's consent and demanding alimony from her ex-husband.
Bogdana Osipova immigrated to the United States from Russia on a student program in 2003. She got married there and later received US citizenship. The couple had a son in 2004 but eventually divorced. In 2013, she had a daughter from her second marriage with Air Force recruiter Brian Mobley.
In March 2014, her husband filed for divorce at the Sedgwick County District Court in Kansas. While the case was pending in court, Osipova, who was pregnant with her third child, took her children to Russia claiming that she had suffered marital abuse. Her second daughter was born in 2014, about two months after she arrived in Russia. Both of her daughters have Russian and US citizenship.
Osipova divorced her husband while in Russia. Afterward, a Russian court decided that her two children should remain in Russia with their mother.
In December 2014, the US court gave Mobley full custody of both girls. Around the same time, Mobley's eldest daughter, who was one at the time, was reported missing. It was indicated that she could be with her mother.
On September 29, 2017, Osipova returned to the United States to apply for custody over her daughters but was arrested by the FBI on charges of kidnapping her own children. The charge of international parental kidnapping was brought against her in October 2017.
On July 25, 2018, four additional charges were filed against Osipova, including extortion, which she claimed was an alimony request for her ex-husband.
The woman was placed in the custody of the Fort Worth Federal Medical Center at a US military base in Texas, where she underwent medical treatment.
On July 26, 2018, on the basis of the expert examination, the judge ruled that Osipova could be brought to justice.
Since August 2018, Osipova has been detained in a regular prison in the state of Kansas.
Mobley himself testified for the prosecution at her trial.
During the hearings, Osipova agreed to return her children to the United States as a condition for her release.
On November 21, 2018, the US court ruled that Osipova would be released from prison when her children arrived to Kansas, but the Russian court did not give them permission to travel abroad. The children are now living with their relatives in the Russian city of Kaliningrad.
On March 6, 2019, a jury found the woman guilty on three out of five counts of indictment � one for kidnapping, and two for extortion. The maximum punishment Osipova faced was 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.
