AFP/Helsinki

Locked in a bitter custody battle with her estranged Finnish husband, a Russian woman has been arrested in Finland over allegations she abducted their son, her lawyer said yesterdaySunday.

“Rimma Salonen was detained on Friday at Helsinki harbour after she had arrived on a ferry from Tallinn, Estonia. She was planning to go meet her children,” said lawyer Heikki Lampela.

The dispute over five-year-old Anton Salonen started in March 2008 when his mother took him to Russia. A Finnish court granted custody to his father, Paavo Salonen, later that year.

The case sparked a diplomatic row between Helsinki and Moscow after it emerged a Finnish diplomat working in Russia smuggled Anton back into Finland in the boot of his car in May this year.

Under an international treaty on diplomatic relations, a diplomat’s vehicle may not be stopped or searched by border police.

Lampela said Salonen had told the Finnish embassy in Tallinn that she was coming to Finland to see her children and was surprised that she had been arrested.

She was then taken to city of Tampere, 180km north of the capital Helsinki.

“It is likely that (today) the police will ask Tampere district court to remand her in custody if there is a fear she will leave the country before preliminary investigation is carried out,” Lampela explained.

Rimma Salonen also has an 18-year-old son by another man living in Finland.