Little Santiago, who was kidnapped Monday evening by his parents, is still nowhere to be found, Bobigny public prosecutor Eric Mathais said this Thursday.
A European arrest warrant will be issued, while the life of the baby, born extremely premature, is in danger.
Three days after the kidnapping of Santiago by his parents, in a maternity ward in Aulnay-sous-Bois (Seine-Saint-Denis), French and Belgian investigators are “extremely mobilized and concerned about the health and even the life of this brand new baby”, declared this Thursday the public prosecutor of Bobigny, Eric Mathais, during a press conference.
Born on October 4, approximately eight weeks early, Santiago is extremely premature and requires constant care. Before his kidnapping, the infant was “under monitoring and a gastric tube. He had to be warmed in an incubator, assisted in his feeding with specific milk for premature babies and had to remain constantly under medical supervision. In the absence of care, his life expectancy is reduced”, detailed the prosecutor.
The prosecutor calls on the parents to “take him to the hospital”
“The priority remains to find Santiago to make sure he is okay”insisted the magistrate, saying “hope to find him alive”.
The Bobigny public prosecutor clarified that Santiago's parents still held parental authority. However, “the abduction of a child by parents remains legally justified when their behavior characterizes an abuse of the exercise of parental authority. Case law then determined abuse when the child's parents deprived him of care. The child was hidden in a bag, there is an abusive use of parental authority.”underlines Eric Mathais.
According to him, “There is little information on the parents' motivations. The need for medical care was understood and accepted (…) They were not opposed to care. But the parents had had the day of 'abduction a multidisciplinary interview with the hospital, and it is likely that they feared a report for 'minor in danger' (…) However, no formal procedure had been initiated. The placement order was issued. taken by the Bobigny public prosecutor's office the day after the kidnapping”, affirms the magistrate.
The prosecutor called on his parents to “protect” this infant. Addressing them, he made this appeal: “If they hear me, for the sake of their baby they must take him to the nearest hospital.” He also invites “all those in contact with the parents, to convince them to take Santiago to a suitable medical facility.”
“Santiago's parents have still not been found in Belgium”, added Eric Mathais. “We do not have precise information on the location of Santiago,” he told journalists, specifying that “the investigation will actively continue and a European arrest warrant will be issued against the parents.”
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The infant was taken Monday evening between 11:00 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. by his parents aged 23 and 25 from the neonatology department of the Robert Ballanger hospital in Aulnay-sous-Bois, at the age of 17 days. The maternity hospital had been alerted of his disappearance“disconnecting its AC sensorsns the incubator. The infant's parents had been seen “at 11:30 p.m. leave the establishment with a bag” then rushed into a vehicle with three other people. The kidnapping alert was triggered the next day, then lifted, “because his retention was no longer useful for the investigation, the parents having reached Belgium during the night”, indicated the magistrate.
“Five people, three men, including a minor and two women, aged 16 to 29, were arrested in Livry-Gargan and placed in police custody. Three of them are presented this Thursday to the two investigating judges now in charge of the investigation. Of this trio, two men, a minor and an adult, admitted to having accompanied the couple in their flight to Belgium, before returning in the nighthe further detailed. His prosecution requested an indictment against them for organized gang kidnapping of a minor under 15 years old and failure to report mistreatment or deprivation. He requested their placement in pre-trial detention. For her part, a woman must be presented to the investigating magistrates for acts of non-denunciation of a crime. The two other police custody were lifted.
