![C’est en chantant que cette femme, aux cheveux bruns coupés au carré et vêtue d’une robe à motifs, est arrivée menottée au tribunal. [FILIPE AMORIM / AFP]](/cdn-cgi/image/onerror=redirect,width=640,height=640,format=webp/https://storage.googleapis.com/uploads.mongoosehq.com/url/media/137305881/0b48f541976328d258b2e4777babac4e9f10206ddb4f7953af91ea1d64fda0fc)
Overview
- Two French boys aged 3 and 5 were found crying on the roadside near Alcácer do Sal on May 19 after a motorist took them to a family bakery and alerted the gendarmerie.
- Following medical checks that found them clinically well, a family court in Setúbal ordered on May 22 that the children be placed in a Portuguese foster family while their return to France is arranged.
- Portugal’s GNR located and arrested a 41-year-old woman and a 55-year-old man in Fátima on May 21 and they were presented to a judge in Setúbal facing possible accusations including abandonment, endangering minors and maltreatment.
- French prosecutors in Colmar have opened an information judiciaire for delaissement de mineurs and investigators used phone geolocation to trace the mother’s movements through southern France, Spain and into Portugal.
- A local motorist and bakery family who first aided the boys say the children reported being blindfolded and left by their mother and her companion, and authorities will now decide on detention, formal charges and the timetable for repatriation to the father in France.