Custody dispute
Investigators search Christina Block’s house
Police investigators in front of the home of entrepreneur Christina Block. photo
© Daniel Bockwoldt/dpa
The daughter of Block House founder Eugen Block has been arguing with her ex-husband over two of their four children for years. Now there have been searches in Hamburg.
Several prosecutors and police officials responded on Friday morning in connection with a… The home of entrepreneur Christina Block (50) in Hamburg was searched due to a custody dispute. A spokeswoman for the public prosecutor’s office in Hamburg said she and other people are being investigated on suspicion of abducting minors and other crimes. Therefore, several search warrants were executed in the morning. The “Bild” newspaper had previously reported.
The searches were related to the investigation into the controversial return of two of their four children from Denmark on New Year’s Eve, said the spokeswoman. The public prosecutor initially did not want to provide any further information about the operation. According to dpa information, the search warrants were executed to secure emails and data. The investigation will focus on who initiated the action in Denmark.
Almost a dozen investigators had carried several cardboard boxes and a device that looked like a printer out of the villa in the early morning. At around 9:30 a.m. the search of the house was initially completed and the officers drove off again. They arrived in civilian vehicles. The action was observed, photographed and filmed by several media representatives.
Attack on New Year’s Eve
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 temporarily transferred the right of residence to their mother.
According to the Danish police, unknown people attacked the father in southern Denmark on New Year’s Eve and took the 10-year-old boy and the 13-year-old girl in two cars. According to Danish police, an investigation is underway for false imprisonment and bodily harm. The children were with their mother after the incident. After an urgent application from the father, the Hanseatic Higher Regional Court issued an interim order on Friday last week, according to which the children had to return to their father.
After the events on New Year’s Eve, the Danish judiciary issued an arrest warrant, said Christina Block’s criminal lawyer, Otmar Kury, on Friday. “There is a European arrest warrant that is not being executed in Hamburg and Germany.” The arrest warrant was converted into a reporting order in Hamburg. There is no risk of escape. The lawyer was unable to say what accusation the Danish judiciary made against the entrepreneur.
New Year’s reception with Eugen Block
Recently, the dispute and the events associated with it were increasingly covered in the media. On Thursday evening, at a New Year’s reception in his five-star Grand Elysée hotel, the 83-year-old Hamburg entrepreneur Eugen Block described the custody battle over his grandchildren as a blatant injustice. All of this is just sad.
Christina Block herself had also spoken out at another New Year’s reception in the Grand Elysée a few days earlier and called for clear rules in the media and the judiciary. “Where injustice occurs, we may advocate that it be revised, and where injustice has been recognized and already judged, this must be implemented strictly and quickly. And the victims must be protected,” she said.