The Court of First Instance of Ararat and Vayots Dzor provinces granted a lawsuit filed by Armenia’s Justice Ministry against A.J., with A.Z. listed as a third party, obliging A.J. to comply with the requirement to return the children to Belgium, the Compulsory Enforcement Service said.

As a result of A.J.’s failure to comply with the court ruling, officers from the Ararat and Vayots Dzor regional division of the enforcement service carried out measures that led to the return of the children, who had been unlawfully brought from Belgium to Armenia a year earlier.

“Within the framework of the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, the Service received information from the central authority of the Kingdom of Belgium that minors O.Z. and E.Z., who had been transferred to Armenia and unlawfully kept there, have already returned to the Kingdom of Belgium accompanied by their father, A.Z.,” the statement said.

The process also involved the Civil Status Acts Registration Agency and the Department for Ensuring International Obligations of the Justice Ministry, as well as officers from Armenia’s Interior Ministry police.