Abduction of Santiago: what we know about the circumstances in which the infant and his parents were found

“Santiago’s parents were found in a hotel in the Amsterdam region in the Netherlands. The baby was with them. He is alive,” announced the Bobigny prosecutor.

Four days after being kidnapped from a maternity ward in Aulnay-sous-Bois, near Paris, the infant Santiago, born extremely premature, was found on Friday October 25. “Santiago was found with his parents” in a hotel in the Amsterdam area, in the Netherlands, “They are all alive”declared the Bobigny public prosecutor’s office, in the Paris region. Here’s what we know on the circumstances of this outcome of an intense hunt.

The baby is “in good health” and hospitalized

“Santiago was found with his parents” in a hotel in the Amsterdam region, announced the Bobigny public prosecutor’s office. The infant “is alive and has been medically taken care of”, added Eric Mathais, the Bobigny prosecutor, Friday evening. No information was provided on the precise location where the baby and his parents were found.

In Belgium, where a wanted notice was issued on Tuesday evening, the king’s prosecutor of Mons-Tournai, Vincent Macq, immediately rejoiced: “The good news is that this child was found alive, apparently in good health”he declared.

The parents were arrested

On X, the Amsterdam police announced that they had “arrested (Friday) a man and a woman (…) suspected of having kidnapped their premature baby”. From a source close to the case at franceinfo, they were found using telephone calls.

European arrest warrants against them had been issued “and more widely via Interpol”Eric Mathais announced earlier Friday. For the king’s prosecutor of Mons-Tournai, this outcome is “a perfect example of what we should do more often in terms of cooperation and mutual legal assistance”.

The reasons for the kidnapping remain to be clarified

This outcome “was made possible by the investigations carried out as part of the investigation opened by the king’s prosecutor of the city of Mons in Belgium, thanks to the work of the federal judicial police of Mons and the collaboration of the Dutch judicial and police authorities”greeted the Bobigny public prosecutor in his press release. The reasons for the kidnapping now remain to be clarified, according to the Bobigny public prosecutor’s office, but it is likely that the parents aged 23 and 25 feared losing custody of their child and that he would be placed in care. On the day of the incident, they had an interview with the hospital teams.

Three people from the parents’ entourage were arrested on Tuesday in France. Two men, a minor and an adult, were charged with kidnapping and sequestration of a minor under the age of 15 in an organized gang and provisionally imprisoned. They admitted to having accompanied the couple and the infant in their flight to Belgium.