Mother wants to bury boy adopted by Swedes in Czech Rep

PRAGUE, March 2 (CTK) - The biological mother of a three- year-old Czech boy, Erik, who was adopted by a Swedish couple last summer and recently died under suspicious circumstances, wants to bury him in the Czech Republic, the daily Pravo reports today.

Erik's mother, Margita Ilesova from Brno, south Moravia, also told the Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet on Wednesday that she did not give consent to the boy's adoption and that she was not officially informed about his death.

The boy, who was sent to Sweden from a children's home in Brno, was found dead with multiple injuries on January 8. He died of blood poisoning and pneumonia, the paper adds, referring to information from the Swedish press.

The case got in focus at the beginning of this week when the Swedish court in Joenkoeping charged the adoptive parents with wilful neglect causing death. The Swedish couple, who have been taken into custody, deny the charges.

It has not been proved that the adoptive parents directly caused the boy's injuries, but they definitely did not provide him with the necessary medical care.

According to their friends and acquaintances' testimonies, the adoptive parents' relations to the boy gradually worsened and they started to beat him up and humiliate him, Pravo says.

The boy ended up in a children's home right after his birth in 2002. The Swedish tabloid Expressen reported that the Czech authorities decided to take the boy from his biological mother and place him into institutional care.

The Swedish papers write that the Swedish social authorities now fear that the case could threaten other possible adoptions from the Czech Republic, Pravo writes.