{"id":590675,"date":"2026-10-18T14:01:54","date_gmt":"2026-10-18T11:01:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reform.news\/?p=590675"},"modified":"2026-10-18T14:22:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-18T11:22:11","slug":"mother-of-belarusian-woman-murdered-in-israel-seeks-custody-of-her-orphaned-grandson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/mother-of-belarusian-woman-murdered-in-israel-seeks-custody-of-her-orphaned-grandson","title":{"rendered":"Mother Of Belarusian Woman Murdered In Israel Seeks Custody Of Her Orphaned Grandson"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The mother of Yanina Maswada (Rusinova)<\/b>, a Belarus-born woman murdered in Israel, is seeking the right to take in her orphaned grandson. The two-month-old boy is currently staying with a secret emergency foster family, while his grandmother, Anna<\/b>, who lives in Belarus, does not know exactly where he is being raised or under what conditions. Israeli activist Lili Ben-Ami<\/b> said<\/a> this on Facebook almost a month after Yanina’s murder.<\/p>\n

According to Ben-Ami, Yanina’s mother has filed an application for custody of her grandson through a lawyer, but the legal process is complicated and could take a considerable amount of time, partly because Anna lives outside Israel.<\/p>\n

“I suggested to Anna that, during the transition period, the child be placed with a foster family chosen by Yanina herself \u2014 a family that Anna also trusts. Although Yanina had no relatives in Israel, she had close friends here who loved her with all their hearts, love her little son, and are already known to the child. So why is there such persistent insistence on placing the baby with people who are complete strangers to him?<\/i><\/p>\n

Yanina’s best friend and her partner have expressed their willingness to take the child into their care immediately. I spoke with them: they are deeply shaken by the murder and are ready to do everything possible in Yanina’s memory. They sincerely want to raise the child as his mother would have \u2014 to bring him up as their own son \u2014 for as long as necessary, until the grandmother receives official permission from the authorities to take him in,”<\/i> Ben-Ami said.<\/p>\n

According to her, the couple know the boy, are familiar with his habits and want to care for him until his grandmother receives permission to raise her grandson herself.<\/p>\n

“Anna has submitted a petition through her lawyer requesting that this particular couple become her grandson’s temporary guardians. They know the child well: what he likes, how he sleeps and what he eats. The couple are Israelis of Russian origin, so they are familiar with the child’s mother’s cultural traditions. In addition, the woman works as a childcare provider and looks after three-month-old babies every day. We have not yet received a response,”<\/i> she said.<\/p>\n

According to the activist, Anna does not know her grandson’s exact whereabouts or the details of his living conditions.<\/p>\n

“All she knows is that he is with a Muslim foster family. How does he sleep? What is he fed? Is he healthy and developing well? What does his room look like? Are there other children there? So far, she has received only a few photographs \u2014 on just three occasions \u2014 and one short video. That is all. There have been no in-person visits, no video calls, and no information about the family, its experience or qualifications,”<\/i> she said.<\/p>\n

Social services explained that the child is staying with a secret emergency foster family whose location is not disclosed.<\/p>\n

“It appears that a decision was made to conceal the child’s whereabouts \u2014 not only from the murderer’s family, which apparently is seeking custody, but also from the family of the deceased, whose members are not Israeli citizens,”<\/i> Ben-Ami said.<\/p>\n

The activist also said Anna had been given to understand that her residence in Belarus and the fact that Yanina converted to Islam before her marriage could influence the court’s decision. According to Ben-Ami, Yanina herself did not lead a Muslim lifestyle.<\/p>\n

“Yanina converted to Islam at the murderer’s request so that they could marry, but in practice she did not lead a Muslim lifestyle. It is deeply troubling that Anna (…) was given to understand that, because Yanina had converted to Islam, the court might rule that the child should be raised by the murderer’s Muslim family. I received this information from an outside source involved in the matter,”<\/i> she wrote.<\/p>\n

A committee hearing on the boy’s custody is scheduled for October 20. The activist noted that a decision will have to be made while the murder investigation is still ongoing and no charges have yet been filed against the suspect. According to her, Yanina’s husband retains his parental rights until then.<\/p>\n

According to Ben-Ami, 53-year-old Anna has a teaching qualification and many years of experience working with young children. She wants to take her grandson to Belarus because medical reasons related to Yanina’s father prevent her from moving to Israel.<\/p>\n

“Anna is a talented, kind woman who lost her daughter in the most brutal way imaginable. Now she wants only one thing: the chance to raise her grandson with love. Anna is asking all of us to help her secure custody so that she can raise him in a loving environment here in Belarus, just as she once raised Yanina with immense love. She is ready to do everything possible,” the activist wrote.<\/p>\n

As a reminder, 31-year-old Belarus-born Yanina Maswada was murdered in Haifa, Israel, in late September<\/a>. Her 28-year-old husband, Ali Maswade<\/b>, is suspected of the crime. The suspect denies wrongdoing; his defense argued in court that the woman had inflicted the fatal injuries on herself.<\/p>\n

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Photo source: facebook.com\/lilisela<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The mother of Yanina Maswada (Rusinova), a Belarus-born woman murdered in Israel, is seeking the right to take in her orphaned grandson. The two-month-old boy is currently staying with a secret emergency foster family, while his grandmother, Anna, who lives in Belarus, does not know exactly where he is being raised or under what conditions. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":119,"featured_media":583605,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sharing_image":{"poster":"https:\/\/reform.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/6ad4abe841937.jpg","width":1200,"height":630,"template":"691142dd","mode":"auto"},"_sharing_image_fieldset":{"dTVKfmI95PYT":"Mother Of Belarusian Woman Murdered In Israel Seeks Custody Of Her Orphaned Grandson"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[142339,142338,143127],"tags":[143118],"class_list":["post-590675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-main","category-news","category-society","tag-belarus"],"wps_subtitle":"","permalink_manager":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/119"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=590675"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590675\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":590678,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590675\/revisions\/590678"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/583605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=590675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=590675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=590675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}