Norwegian seeks children’s return

Press, 28 April 1980, Page 1

Norwegian seeks children’s return

By KEN COATES in London

A Norwegian mother will probably . travel to New Zealand soon to seek possession of her two sons.

Neither Mrs Elisabeth Holto. of Nedre Eiker, near Oslo, nor Norway’s Justice Department is prepared to wait until July 3 for a court case that will determine who has guardianship of Hans Magne, aged 13, and Jan Erik, aged 10. The boys, -now live in

Wellington with their father, Mr Lars Hjalmar Holto, aged 40. The Holto affair has been in the Norwegian newspapers off and on for a month.

In January, Mr Holto sent his former wife a letter demanding 50,000 crowns (about. SNZ 10.000). He said that if she refused to pay he would vanish with their sons to “a place where no-one can trace us.”

In March he did not return from an outing with the boys, who, according to Norweign law, are in the custody of their mother.

Interpol found Mr Holto employed as a baker in Wellington in early April but since then Norway has failed'to obtain a swift reaction from the New Zealand authorities.

The two countries have no extradition, agreement, and according to the Norwegian press, Mr Holto cannot be returned to Nor-

way in spite of police charges of attempted extortion and coercion (the “kidnapping paragraph” of Norwegian penal law). Mr Oluf Skarpnes, of the Norwegian Justice Department, says that Mrs Holto, travelling to New Zealand with financial help from the Norwegian Foreign Affairs Department. can bring her children home only in accordance with the wish of the Justice Department and that of her former husband.