the kidnapped near Lens was found safe and sound

Hamza, 12, was found unharmed on the morning of Saturday, December 18. His father, suspected of having kidnapped him, is in police custody. He was arrested in a town near Lens (Pas-de-Calais), at the home of his sister. At 6 p.m. the day before, the young boy was placed with a foster family by decision of a judge. Two hours later, a man knocked on the door. “I opened my door, there was a gentleman I don’t know at all, the kid pulled the door open and fled with the gentleman in the car. (…) It happened very, very quickly‘, confides the family assistant who welcomed the child.

The kidnapping alert was triggered on the morning of Saturday 18. The man left in a white car, then drove to Hénin-Beaumont (Pas-de-Calais), before changing vehicles. Investigators feared going abroad. “A few weeks earlier, the person was intercepted at the airport, as he was about to flee outside [de l’] European Union. (…) He thus appears determined in his project and potentially dangerous“, wrote in a statement the prosecutor of the public prosecutor’s office of Béthune, in the morning. An investigation was opened for kidnapping.