US Judge Denies Russian Citizen Osipova-Mobley's Request To Disqualify Himself

(@FahadShabbir)

US Judge Denies Russian Citizen Osipova-Mobley's Request to Disqualify Himself

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 06th June, 2019) US District Judge Eric Melgren on Wednesday denied Russian citizen Bogdana Osipova-Mobley's request to disqualify himself from her case and will sentence her on June 6.

"The Court's statement that the mitigation of returning the children to the United States may favorably impact the Defendant's sentence is not evidence of bias or prejudice," Melgren said in the order revealed at the court database.

On Tuesday, Osipova-Mobley - who is convicted in the United States of parental kidnapping because she moved her children to Russia while divorcing her husband in the United States - asked Melgren to disqualify himself.

Osipova-Mobley's lawyers argue in the motion that Judge Merglen violated the Code of Conduct for US Judges when he suggested in an email correspondence with the defendant's mother that her sentence will be more favorable if she returns her children to the United States prior to the hearing.

Osipova-Mobley, who is a dual Russian and US citizen, left Wichita, Kansas, in 2014 with one child from her first marriage and another from a marriage to Air Force recruiter Brian Mobley, according to prosecutors. She gave birth to another child after arriving in Russia. The US authorities arrested Osipova-Mobley in 2017 shortly after she returned to the United States in order to change child support arrangements.