The father of the young Hamza for whom a kidnapping alert had been triggered Saturday, December 18 in Fouquières-lès-Lens must appear this Monday, January 10 before the Criminal Court of Béthune. On Friday, December 17, he came to pick up his 12-year-old son from the nursery assistant where the teenager had been placed, by decision of a judge, the parents, divorced, being in conflict over his custody.
The child had been found safe and sound, four hours after the alert was triggered, with his father, at the latter’s sister a few kilometers away in Sallaumines. But for Hamza’s father’s lawyer, the kidnapping alert should never have been raised by the public prosecutor of Béthune. When the man came to pick up his son on Friday evening, it was because the teenager was feeling uneasy a few hours after arriving with a foster family.
“As soon as he got into his vehicle with this child, he immediately called the police station in Lens saying ‘I have just picked up my son and obviously I would not like this to be translated as a will to my part to take it away from anyone “”, says Master Damien Legrand. According to him, the agent on the phone turned him away because of the late hour. Same response from the social worker following Hamza, warned by the man and the child himself.
For Hamza’s father’s lawyer, “justice is incapable of recognizing its mistakes”
The father then entrusted the young boy to a relative and went to the Lens police station to deposit a handrail. with the location of his son. The police do not make the connection. The kidnapping alert is therefore triggered the next day early in the morning. Hamza was found a few hours later.
Master Damien Legrand does not understand why his client is summoned to court. “It reflects nothing other than the institution’s inability to recognize that it is making mistakes. Not only is the machine racing because it malfunctions, but at the same time it is also unable to recognize that she made mistakes. And today we find ourselves being prosecuted on the basis of an offense that everyone knows was never committed. “
End of August, the father had already tried to leave with his son to take him to the United Arab Emirates where he now lives. He had been prevented from doing so at the last minute by the police at an airport in Belgium. The father then embarked on a three-month journey with his son, at the end of which a judge placed the child and announced to the father a reduction in his visitation rights. While awaiting trial, the man was left free, under judicial supervision. He risks 1 year in prison and a fine of 15,000 euros.