Americans Held In Romania In Kidnap Probe

Three U.S. citizens have been asked to remain in Romania while authorities investigate the alleged kidnapping of a child that has been the subject of a custody dispute, a Romanian prosecutor said Friday.

The three Americans are being questioned in the alleged abduction of Stefan Barbat-Alexander, 8, in the central Romanian town of Sacele on Tuesday, prosecutor Claudiu Sandu said.

The boy disappeared from his school during a break. The school's staff alerted his mother, Marcela Barbat, and hundreds of police began a nationwide search.

Police found the child with the three Americans on Wednesday 200 meters from Romania's southern border with Bulgaria. Authorities ordered the three not to leave Romania.

Police refused to name those being questioned. Authorities are barred by law from naming suspects until they are arrested and charged.

"They are being investigated for depriving the boy of his freedom and will stay in Romania for 30 days while the investigation is under way," Sandu said.

The child told police that one of the three claimed to be related to his father and that he had come to take him back to the United States, a police statement said.

Barbat, 36, has sought a divorce in Romania from Brandon Alexander Sharwin of New York City, Sandu said.

A federal warrant for parental kidnapping has been issued in Barbat's name according to the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services.

[brianbwb-2009]

"hey brian, did you read the last entence?" Posted by holder133487

Yes, I did, but according to the account in the above article it seems the father, apparently not among those caught apparently elected to have other fools do the dirty work for him.

Conspiracy at best, according to the article, but let those caught in Romania be jailed in Romania, and let the father be jailed wherever the planning was done.

[holder133487]

hey brian, did you read the last entence?

[brianbwb-2009]

"The child told police that one of the three claimed to be related to his father and that he had come to take him back to the United States, a police statement said."

This Rambo wannabe has been watching too much bush doctrine, and thinks he can enter another country, and break their laws and kidnap their people with impunity.

I understand that a Bucharest jail is not a place you want to spend any time whatsoever, so if found guilty of kidnapping, and conspiracy to transport kidnap victims across international borders, it is proper that he spend a good amount of the rest of his soon-to-be-someone''s-girlfriend life there.