Two days after being handed over to the French authorities, the father of Santiago, a very premature baby whom he had kidnapped before fleeing to Belgium and then the Netherlands, was indicted. Presented to an investigating judge from the Bobigny public prosecutor’s office, he was indicted for kidnapping and sequestration of a minor under the age of 15 in an organized gang and deprivation of care, indicates TF1.
The man was placed in pre-trial detention, before appearing before a liberty and detention judge on December 9. The latter will have to decide on his continued detention for the remainder of the procedure. The accused and his partner, aged 23, had taken their 17-day-old baby from the Aulnay-sous-Bois hospital, where he was born prematurely, on October 21.
The couple fled towards Belgium, then the Netherlands, while Paris and Brussels had triggered kidnapping alerts. After five days of searching, the couple was arrested in Amsterdam, in the hotel where they had found refuge. The baby, two months premature and entrusted to Child Welfare, was found in great health.
If the mother had accepted an accelerated procedure to return to France on November 7 when she was indicted and placed under judicial supervision, the father had opted for a classic procedure, extending his detention in the Netherlands.
