MOSCOW, January 16 - RAPSI. Russian citizen Rimma Salonen, who was deprived of custody of her son, on Monday, suspended her indefinite hunger strike in Finland which she declared last week to protest the court's judgment.
"I'm determined to go as far as it might take, but I have been approached by the spokeswoman of the Russian Mothers Organization, who asked me to suspend the hunger strike because five Russian women from five different countries plan to hold a one-day hunger strike in a week or so," Salonen told RIA Novosti on Monday.
She said she feels fine and lost three kilograms during the hunger strike.
Irina Bergset, the spokeswoman for the organization, told RIA Novosti earlier that it calls on the Russian people to boycott Finnish products and goods for one day to support Salonen.
The conflict between Salonen and her husband Paavo occurred several years after they divorced. In 2008, Rimma took her son Anton to Russia and was deprived by the Finnish court of custody in absentia. However, in spring 2009, several people, including Paavo, assaulted Rimma and kidnapped Anton, Russian law enforcement agencies say. Paavo was then assisted by Finnish diplomat Simo Pietilainen and illegally took the child back to Finland.
Rimma returned to Finland where she was given an 18-month suspended sentence in October 2009 for illegally taking Anton to Russia. The court also charged her alimony payments and legal expenses in favor of her former husband.
Paavo Salonen and Pietilainen avoided criminal liability in Finland for kidnapping Anton. Finnish prosecutors terminated the case against them without filing charges in March 2011, which perplexed the Russian Foreign Ministry.
Salonen later decided to initiate a criminal case against her former husband in a court in Vantaa.