Interpol warrant traps Aussie couple in Poland

An Australian couple has been in hiding in Poland since June, after abducting their son during an unsupervised visit at a children’s home, where he was being kept against their will.

Conrad, Katya and Martin den Hertog with Polish Justice Minister Michal Wojcik and lawyer Bartosz Lewandowski.

An Australian father has won a landmark legal battle after snatching his severely autistic son from a children’s home and fleeing across Europe, but he still ­remains wanted by Interpol over the kidnapping.

Conrad den Hertog and his wife, Katya, have been in hiding in Poland since June, after they ­abducted their son, Martin, during an unsupervised visit at the De Hondsberg Institute where he was being kept against their will.

The couple said their son had been seized by Dutch Child Protective Services during a late-night raid on their suburban home in Amsterdam in February 2018, when he was five, and placed in the home after his non-verbal ­autism was mistaken for a symptom of psychological abuse.

Mr den Hertog, who is from Port Stephens on the NSW mid-north coast and worked for the Department of Finance in Canberra before moving to The Netherlands in 2002, said they had spent more than two years trying to regain custody through diplomatic and legal channels before resorting to drastic action.

The IT project manager said they decided to abduct their son and seek asylum in Poland after learning “Dutch CPS wanted to place Martin in an institute for the mentally handicapped of all ages for the rest of his life without ­access to any school or therapy”.

He said their actions had been vindicated with the Family and Registry District Court in Warsaw this month ruling that the Dutch child protection orders stripping them of their parental authority were not in Martin’s best interests and were not to be recognised in Poland.

The decision came after the Polish court ruled against extraditing the den Hertogs to The Netherlands in September in spite of a European arrest warrant being issued on behalf of Dutch authorities over the kidnapping.

Mr den Hertog welcomed the rulings and said his family appreciated the assistance and understanding they had received since absconding to Poland to ensure that Martin, who is now eight, had the best chance in life.

“We are very happy that our son will remain safely under our care,” Mr den Hertog told The Australian. “We are living in a nice apartment and have focused here on getting Martin to do his daily schooling and regular therapy on top of that. On the weekends, we take him to various playgrounds, an indoor child gym, the zoo or science centre.

“Due to the European arrest warrant, we cannot travel outside Poland and are awaiting a final decision on a Brussels convention application by Dutch CPS.

“If we win that one in July, my family would be finally legally free to go anywhere in Europe, excluding The Netherlands.”

While the couple initially expressed interest in returning to Australia with their son, Mr den Hertog said there were still many obstacles to be cleared before that was a possibility.

“There is still an international alert (for our arrest) triggered by Dutch CPS and accepted by Interpol — which is normally reserved for war criminals — that we would need to deal with,” he said. “We would need to contact the Australian Federal Police and seek assurances we would be granted safe status to visit as well as the Australian embassies of any transit countries for their support.”