Eya found in Denmark, her father and accomplice arrested

MISCELLANEOUS – “Eya has just been found in Denmark. » It is with these few words that the prosecutor of Grenoble, Éric Vaillant, announced this Friday, May 26, the epilogue to the kidnapping of the 10-year-old girl in Fontaine, near Grenoble in Isère, on Thursday.

The father and his accomplice were arrested, said a source familiar with the matter to AFP.

Two European arrest warrants had been issued on Friday against the two men earlier in the day. They were suspected by the courts of having left France after having brutally taken the girl away from her mother.

“The elements in our possession suggest that the father, his accomplice and the child are now abroad”, said Grenoble prosecutor Éric Vaillant in a press release at the end of the morning. “ The possible destination countries are obviously Sweden and Tunisia”he added, these two countries corresponding to the two nationalities of the father, aged 53.

Tear gas

The 10-year-old girl was kidnapped Thursday around 8:15 a.m. while she was walking with her mother in the street to get to her school in Fontaine, in the suburbs of Grenoble, where she is educated in CM2. According to the prosecution, the father and a hooded accomplice” ont « gassed with tear gas the mother of the little girl” before seizing Eya.

The 33-year-old mother told the Dauphine Libere Thursday that they were suddenly blocked by a vehicle, inside which she says she recognized the father of the child. As the driver sprayed him with tear gas, his “ ex-husband grabbed (the child) by the hair and forced him into the backseat with him”she said again, saying she feared that he would take her abroad.

A judicial inquiry was then opened for “ aggravated violence against the child’s mother”« violence » on the minor for the two respondents, “ subtraction by ascending » for the father and complicity in subtraction by ascendant” for his accomplice.

A kidnapping alert had been triggered Thursday evening, before it was lifted this Friday morning, justice being convinced that the suspects and the girl were now abroad. A European arrest warrant had been issued.

Eya was born in Tunisia

An agent of the social center in front of which the facts took place tried to intervene, in vain, indicated to AFP the mayor of this commune of 23,000 inhabitants, Franck Longo.

The child, born in Tunisia where the mother had gone to study and married in 2012, has dual Franco-Tunisian nationality. The mother returned to France with her daughter in 2017, according to local press.

“When he started school here, the father was still seeing his daughter. But he couldn’t see her for a long time.”, also affirmed the mayor, specifying that the mother had family in Fontaine, in particular her sister. According to the prosecution, the father is suspected of having been violent with the mother in the past”.

On Friday morning, a listening unit was set up by the rectorate within the Jules-Ferry school (200 pupils), where Eya is educated from the large section, in particular for “ class students » of the little girl, the rectorate told AFP.

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