UPDATED: 12.05am: A Maltese man returned to Malta with his son this evening, weeks after his estranged Russian partner allegedly abducted the seven-year-old.

Anthony Busuttil returned on a flight from Frankfurt late last night after his former partner was stopped at the Polish border yesterday, trying to flee the country, his lawyer Edward Debono told Times of Malta.

Mr Busuttil had only seen his son once since December 1, when his partner disappeared from the family’s hotel room in Prague with their son, taking only their passports and the clothes they were wearing.

"Sometimes anger is good," Mr Busuttil told reporters at Malta International Airport, as he hugged his son.

The Maltese courts have since granted Mr Busuttil sole custody of his child, which should have allowed him to bring the boy back to Malta, where he was born and still lived and went to school before he was taken.

Adam Busuttil

The courts also ruled on the basis of the Brussels II convention, which regulates cases of international child abduction, and should supersede Czech legislation.

According to Dr Debono, the woman was stopped by police in Poland, border with Belarus yesterday, after she was issued with a restraint order.

Upon hearing of the news, Mr Busuttil flew immediately to the Czech border where he was immediately handed over his son Adam.

Speaking to reporters earlier this month when he failed to bring his son to Malta, Mr Busuttil was exasperated: “I feel helpless and disappointed. To see your son, terrified of you, pulled away by his mother, what else can you feel?”

Mr Busuttil said he had feared that the child’s mother – who took the boy’s passport when she ran away – could at any time take him back to her native Russia where securing access or the boy’s return would be even more difficult.