A judge has ordered pre-trial detention for a mother and stepfather in a case involving the alleged abandonment of two young French children in Portugal, according to media reports on Saturday.
The two French citizens are strongly suspected of causing grievous bodily harm and abandoning children, Judge António Fialho said at the court in the city of Setúbal.
The mother, 41, and the stepfather, 55, are from Colmar, in north-eastern France.
The mother of the two brothers — aged 3 and 5 — and the stepfather are alleged to have abandoned the children on Tuesday on a remote country road near Alcácer do Sal south-east of Lisbon. A motorist noticed the crying and confused children, took them into his care and alerted the police. The mother and stepfather were arrested on Thursday after a nationwide search.
The boys have since been placed with a foster family in Portugal that speaks French, several Portuguese media reported. They are to remain there until Portugal has decided on a request from France for the brothers to be returned. The biological father is said to have already set off for Portugal.
Couple allegedly planned to claim mental health problems
State broadcaster RTP and the newspaper Correio da Manha reported, citing sources in Portugal's National Republican Guard (GNR), that the mother and stepfather agreed during a prison transfer to claim a mental disorder in court. A police officer who was guarding the two French nationals during the journey on Friday is said to have heard this.
The court in Setúbal initially did not comment on the reports.
Mother sex therapist - stepfather ex-police officer
The woman presents herself online as a sex therapist. According to Portuguese media reports, the man is a former French police officer who left the service due to depression. RTP reported that he was convicted as early as 2010 of domestic violence against his first wife. He is said to have met the children's mother "a few months ago."
The French newspaper Le Parisien wrote that the former gendarme was sentenced at the time to nine months in prison, suspended for two years, for harassment and violence against the mother of his daughter. It said he posted conspiracy-theory and anti-Semitic content on his Facebook page.
Two arrest warrants from France
In an interview with RTP, GNR spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Carlos Canatário said there were also two European arrest warrants from France against the two French nationals for child abduction and neglect of another son of the mother aged 16.
They would therefore also have to appear before an appeal court responsible for such foreign requests. Detention could also be ordered there. The two have so far not been willing to cooperate during police questioning, Canatário said, without giving details.
Mother allegedly abducted the children
Until now, the mother had custody and the father had visitation rights for the boys, the French newspaper Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace reported, citing Colmar public prosecutor Jean Richert. The biological father reported the mother and the children missing to the police in Colmar. Concerns had already grown there because the children had stopped coming to nursery school. In France, an investigation has been opened on suspicion of abandoning minors, Le Parisien reported.
