The mother of Santiago, who had kidnapped her very premature baby on October 21 in a maternity ward in Seine-Saint-Denis and fled abroad, was indicted on Thursday in France but left free under judicial supervision, said Friday the Bobigny parquet.
The 25-year-old young mother, who arrived Thursday at Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport (Roissy) from Amsterdam, was presented to an investigating judge who indicted her for kidnapping and sequestration of a minor under 15 years old in an organized gang.
Presented immediately to the judge of freedoms and detention, she was released under judicial supervision, contrary to the requisitions of the prosecution which had requested her placement in pre-trial detention. A decision which the prosecution appealed on Friday, he said in a press release.
“She explained herself at length (to the judge) and her place is more in the hospital than in prison,” her lawyer Romuald Sayagh told AFP.
“She is free. Her condition was taken into account, as was the fact that she agreed to take responsibility and cooperate,” continued the lawyer who had argued that the young mother was “in a state of post-traumatic stress” since giving birth, as parents of extremely premature babies can experience, and that she had been living “in fear” since the baby’s placement had been discussed.
Santiago, for his part, was repatriated to France on November 1st. “Initially hospitalized, he is now placed with Child Welfare,” announced the Bobigny public prosecutor’s office.
Very prematurely born two months early, the newborn, then 17 days old, was taken by his parents from a hospital in Aulnay-sous-Bois, near Paris, where he was placed in an incubator.
After four days of tracking, Dutch police found the two parents and the baby on October 25 in a hotel in Amsterdam. The parents had been placed in pre-trial detention, awaiting their return to France.
The mother accepted the accelerated procedure of surrender to France, while the father opted for a long procedure and remains in pre-trial detention in the Netherlands.
“In the context of professional secrecy, I cannot tell you why the father opted for the long procedure. All I can say is that it was a carefully considered decision,” he said on Thursday. AFP his lawyer in the Netherlands, Gerald Roethof.
The case was highly publicized, due to the triggering of kidnapping alerts in France and Belgium. Many police officers were mobilized to quickly find the baby who required constant care.
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