The newborn, very premature, kidnapped by his parents in Aulnay-sous-Bois (Seine-Saint-Denis) Monday evening, was found this Friday, October 25 in the Amsterdam area, in the Netherlands, in the company of his parents.
Safe and sound. Santiago, the baby kidnapped by his parents at the Robert Ballanger hospital in Aulnay-sous-Bois (Seine-Saint-Denis) on October 21, was found this Friday, October 25 in the evening in the company of his parents, according to information from BFM confirmed by AFP. The couple and the newborn were staying at a hotel in the Amsterdam area, Netherlands. According to the continuous news channel, the state of health of Santiago, born premature and aged 17 days at the time of his disappearance, is «bon».
“Santiago was found with his parents, they are all alive, in a hotel” from the Amsterdam region, said a spokeswoman for the public prosecutor's office without providing further information. Arrest warrants targeting the parents had been distributed at European level and more widely via Interpol, as Eric Mathais, Bobigny prosecutor, announced this Friday.
Santiago, followed in the neonatology department of this hospital near Paris, was born eight weeks early and required “constant medical care”. Hence the concern of the authorities, since any interruption of care was likely to jeopardize his vital prognosis – his life expectancy had been estimated at around twelve hours. Thursday, the Bobigny prosecutor called on his parents to drive their child “immediately to the nearest hospital».
Reasons to clarify
The alert was launched by the Seine-Saint-Denis establishment to the authorities on Monday evening: the staff had been alerted to his disappearance by the disconnection of his cardiac sensors housed in his incubator. “The use of video surveillance cameras confirmed that the parents had left with a black shopping bag, possibly using a light-colored vehicle, with three other individuals on board,” the Bobigny prosecutor then explained. A kidnapping alert was put into effect on Tuesday, lifted in the evening. The Belgian authorities had taken over, since the fleeing parents, aged 23 and 25, were suspected of having entered the country. Their car was also found in Charleroi, not far from the border.
The reasons for the kidnapping remain to be clarified, indicates the prosecution, but it is likely that the parents feared losing custody of their child. On the day of the incident, they had an interview with the hospital teams. Following the kidnapping, the courts issued an emergency placement order for the baby. At the same time, three people from their entourage were arrested on Tuesday in Seine-Saint-Denis. Two men, a minor and an adult, were indicted for kidnapping and confinement of a minor under the age of 15 in an organized gang and temporarily incarcerated. They admitted to having accompanied the couple and the infant in their flight to Belgium.
Update with more context
