a French couple narrowly arrested in Spain

Believing their son to be possessed, a French couple planned to kill him in the Sahara. He was arrested at the end of December in Spain, when he was about to board a flight to Morocco.

The Bordeaux public prosecutor’s office, contacted by franceinfo, announced on Wednesday January 3 that it had opened a judicial investigation on December 20 for “arrest”, “kidnapping”, “sequestration or arbitrary detention of a minor hostage aged 15 to facilitate a crime or misdemeanor “, against a French couple arrested in Spain, who had “the intention to murder their son believing he was possessed”according to the Spanish Guardia Civil.

The boy is 3 years old, the Bordeaux prosecutor’s office said on Wednesday, and not 5 years old, as previously indicated by the Guardia Civil. Still according to the Bordeaux public prosecutor’s office, the 39-year-old father and the 30-year-old mother are currently incarcerated in Spain and “the extradition procedure is underway”. The mother is unknown to the courts, which is not the case for the father, who is known “for old facts unrelated to the facts accused today”. From a source close to the file at franceinfo, both parents are music teachers based in Carcans-Maubuisson in Gironde.

A couple “with psychiatric problems”

The prosecution specifies that it opened an investigation on December 19 after being alerted by a relative “worried for the son of a couple of friends, aged 3, whose father made delusional comments and who was planning to go to the Maghreb in the company of his wife and their son to undertake a form of initiatory journey “. Since then, specifies a source close to the case, a Bordeaux investigating judge has been contacted.

In a press release dated December 30 and relayed by France Bleu Gironde, the Guardia civil (the Spanish gendarmerie) affirms that it is a French couple “with psychiatric problems”. They were arrested on December 21 in the port of Algeciras, in Andalusia, southern Spain. The couple was preparing to take the ferry with their son, heading to Tangier, Morocco, and planned to reach the Sahara.

Both parents were subject to a European arrest warrant. A few days earlier, the French gendarmerie had in fact sent to the Guardia civil, “an urgent request for collaboration”after being alerted by a person close to the couple.

The child is “in good health”

“Given the seriousness of the events, a security system has been put in place covering the exit points” from Spain to Morocco, explains the Guardia Civil. It is “thanks to him” that “the parents and the minor were located in a vehicle about to board”.

This man and woman were “made available to the judicial authority, which ordered their incarceration”. As for the child, “He is healthy” And “was transferred to a juvenile center”, before his repatriation to France. Information confirmed by the Bordeaux public prosecutor’s office: “The child was entrusted to Spanish social services following an emergency temporary placement order and his return to France is being finalized”. The investigation was entrusted to the Lesparre research brigade and the Bordeaux research section. In particular, it will have to determine the psychological profile of the parents and whether it is a question of sectarian drift.