Father of Czech boy in Sweden sent to prison

(From Czech News Agency)

Stockholm, March 30 (CTK) - A court in the Swedish town of Joenkoeping today sentenced Rickard Bergquist, 31, the adoptive father of Czech boy Erik, to six months in prison. Erik was adopted by the Swedish parents last summer and died in his new family at the beginning of this year.

Bergquist was sentenced for inflicting an injury to his adoptive son through neglecting his parental duties. However, the court rejected the prosecutions demand that Bergquist be sentenced for physical mal-treatment of Erik. The original supposition that the parents attitude to the boy directly led to Eriks death has not been proved in the case of Bergquist.

Eriks adoptive mother Linda Bergquist, 30, is not mentioned in todays verdict.

At the end of the main proceedings on March 13, the court sent her to psychiatric treatment and the verdict in her case will be delivered after the treatment is completed. The court is not sure whether Linda Bergquist is able to serve her sentence in a standard prison or whether she will have to be placed under forced psychiatric treatment.

According to information obtained by CTK today in Sweden, the psychiatric examination of Linda Bergquist has not yet started and it will probably take at least several weeks to deliver the verdict. She will wait for the verdict at liberty.

The case of Erik who was renamed Freddi in Sweden provoked great interest in Sweden and the Czech Republic. He only lived less than six months after he was adopted. When he arrived in Sweden last August it seemed that he would get used to living in the new family quickly. However, problems appeared after a few weeks when the new parents more and more lost patience with the boy. They punished him physically for the refusal to obey their orders and finally underestimated the serious injuries to which he later succumbed.