Australian boys feared abducted in Sweden

Police in Sweden are continuing the search for two boys not seen since they were brought to the country from Australia by their Swedish mother in early October.

• Indonesian girl, 16, missing in Sweden (17 Nov 08)
• Alicia's father jailed over Cambodia abduction (14 Oct 08)
• Police search for missing Scot (28 Aug 08)

Australia's Family Court has taken the unusual step of releasing the identities of the two boys, who have been missing without a trace since late September.

André and Frank Valette, 9 and 11, flew to Sweden to visit their mother, Ann-Louise Valette, on September 9th, Australian newspaper The Age reports.

The boys' father, George Pésor, who has sole custody of the two children, was expecting to meet them on a plane from Sweden on October 11th.

But the boys were not on board, and the last contact Pésor had with his children was a phone conversation on October 4th. He is currently in Sweden searching "day and night" for his boys.

"I have to find my children as soon as possible," Pésor told Swedish daily Expressen.

"I don't know how they're doing. I don't know anything. This is a nightmare. How can children disappear in Sweden?"

Ann-Marie Valette had been ordered by an Australian court to ensure the boys were back in their home country by October 11th.

But when their mother cancelled the flight tickets and failed to show up at a planned court hearing in Sweden, the boys were reported missing and an international warrant was put out for the arrest of Ann-Marie Valette.

"Our hypothesis is that the mother is receiving help from some organization," police inspector Peter Sehlin told Expressen.

Pésor and Valette's marriage ended in an acrimonious divorce in 2003, followed by a protracted court battle over custody of the boys. Both the district and appeal courts in Sweden ruled that Pésor should be awarded sole custody, a decision that also accorded with the wishes of the boys.

But after moving to Melbourne with his sons, Pésor was obliged under the terms of an Australian court order to ensure the boys paid a visit to their mother in Sweden twice a year. The boys' September flight was intended to be the beginning of the first such visit.

"The judge didn't care that the mother had said she would disappear with the children," Pésor told Expressen.

Inspector Sehlin told The Age that the boys had last been seen in their mother's home town of Västerås in central Sweden at the end of September.

Anybody with information regarding the whereabouts of Frank and André Valette and their mother Ann-Louise Valette is urged to contact the police at 114 114 and ask to be put through to police in Södermanland.