Custody dispute
European arrest warrant against Christina Block lifted
The Danish authorities have lifted a European arrest warrant against Christina Block. photo
© Georg Wendt/dpa
On New Year’s Eve, unknown people brought two children of Hamburg entrepreneur Christina Block from Denmark to Germany. A European arrest warrant followed. That should be off the table now.
The European arrest warrant against the Hamburg entrepreneur Christina Block (50) has been lifted, according to her lawyer. The decision of the Danish law enforcement authorities was also based on the intervention of the Danish and German defense, explained Block’s criminal lawyer Otmar Kury in Hamburg. The arrest warrant was issued after the violent repatriation of two children from Denmark on New Year’s Eve. The son and daughter were brought to Germany by unknown persons and were with their mother in Hamburg for a few days. After a court decision, they returned to Denmark.
The Hamburg public prosecutor’s office did not want to comment on the cancellation of the arrest warrant. According to previous information from the authority, Christina Block and other people are being investigated on suspicion of kidnapping minors and other crimes. On January 12th, the public prosecutor’s office had the entrepreneur’s home searched. Investigators also looked for evidence at the Hotel Elysée, which belongs to the Block House Group, and – according to media reports – at the company headquarters in Langenhorn.
Christina Block and her ex-husband (49) have been fighting in court for years over custody of the two younger of their four children. They have been living with their father in Denmark for more than two years, although the Hanseatic Higher Regional Court in Hamburg had provisionally transferred the right of residence to their mother in October 2021. However, last February 19, the same court ruled that German courts no longer had jurisdiction.
The children now have their permanent home in Denmark. The court stated that it is not important that the change in custody in 2021 was unlawful. What is crucial is that all legal steps in Denmark to repatriate the children were unsuccessful and that the children had settled into their new environment in two and a half years. According to the Higher Regional Court, there is no longer any appeal against the decision. Issues of custody are now expected to be resolved by a Danish court.
Christina Block and the father of her children married in August 2005 and divorced about ten years later. The father did not send the children back to Germany in the summer of 2021 after an agreed visit.