Star Metro - Dutch extradite mother of premature baby smuggled from France

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Dutch extradite mother of premature baby smuggled from France

BOULEVARD 07.11.2024

Dutch extradite mother of premature baby smuggled from France / Photo: Nick Gammon - AFP

A mother who smuggled her premature baby from a Paris hospital to the Netherlands was handed over to French authorities on Thursday, Dutch prosecutors said.

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Born eight weeks premature, the child and his parents were found by Amsterdam police almost two weeks ago after an international search operation.

The 25-year-old mother of the baby, identified only as Santiago, arrived at Paris Charles-de-Gaulle airport on a flight from Amsterdam mid-afternoon and was to appear before an investigating magistrate, a French source close to the case said.

The baby's 23-year-old father "remains in custody" in the Netherlands, Dutch public prosecutor spokesman Franklin Wattimena told AFP.

The father opted for a longer extradition procedure while the mother had accepted a fast-tracked process.

The baby had already been taken to France in an ambulance last Thursday and is in good health, the source said.

French authorities issued a kidnapping alert and European arrest warrants for the couple after they took Santiago, who needed constant medical care, from a hospital in a Paris suburb.

Belgian authorities were also involved in the search as Santiago's parents are thought to have fled from France to Belgium first before reaching the Netherlands.

They transported the baby in an incubator inserted into a shopping bag.

Police found them after four days in an Amsterdam hotel room. The baby was in good health.

A lawyer for the mother told AFP on Thursday that she had acted "out of fear" after hospital staff raised the possibility that her child could be taken away and placed with social services.

"She was in a state of post-traumatic stress" brought on by the premature birth of the child, Romuald Sayagh told AFP.

The investigating magistrate is to decide on any charges to be brought against her, and whether she should remain in custody.

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O.Lessard--SMC