French couple arrested in Spain over Sahara plot to kill son
French newspaper Le Monde reported that a French couple were arrested in Spain following revelations that they had intentions to kill their son in the Sahara region.
The parents of the five-year-old were arrested on December 30 in Spain’s Andalusia region as the French judiciary launched extradition proceedings against the pair, the Bordeaux prosecutor’s office announced on January 3.
It has been reported that the father and mother had been residing in Carcans, a commune roughly 50km away from the southern city of Bordeaux.
The gendarmerie (French police) said that after suspicions that the child was getting mistreated a complaint was made against the couple by family friends, it was revealed that, “The father was making delusional remarks” and “was planning to go to the Maghreb region with his wife and their son to carry out a form of initiatory journey,”
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The prosecutor’s office recently opened an investigation into, “kidnapping or arbitrary detention of a minor hostage under the age of 15 to facilitate a crime or misdemeanour against the couple”.
As details regarding the case get drip-feeded bit by bit, it was found that both individuals had severe ” psychiatric problems”.
In a similar case, a couple were jailed in Reims, France in February 2021 after a youth was beaten to death.
The three-year-old boy was killed in November 2016 and the murderer, Loic Vantal, was handed a 20-year sentence.
The mother had phoned emergency services as she found her child unconscious. When medics arrived at the pair’s flat, they found the child’s lifeless body covered in bruises.
Le Monde/AFP
