The National Council of Women has backed calls for a mother imprisoned for child visitation right violations to receive a Presidential pardon.

The mother was jailed for three months after she was found guilty of not allowing her estranged husband access to their teenage son when he was 16.

She has written to President George Abela requesting a pardon, after the son told The Sunday Times that his mother had never stopped him from visiting his father.

The NCW said yesterday that it was “shocked” by the “extreme penalty” handed down to the mother, adding this would not help improve the relationship between the father and his son in any way.

Sentencing the mother to jail had turned a 57-year-old teacher into a convicted criminal who would now have to look for work to provide for her son, the NCW argued.

The court decision also sent a message to mothers in a similar situation that they had to force their children to spend time with their fathers.

“Whichever way the mother will act, she will be assumed guilty. It would be assumed that taking no action to ensure access means that a mother is doing so out of revenge,” the NCW said.

The NCW asked the President to pardon the woman and reinstate her as a teacher within a state school, something the Education Ministry said was up to the Public Service Commission.