The public prosecutor of Nantes, Pierre Sennès, opened a preliminary investigation for "violation of the secrecy of the instruction".

Nantes prosecutor Pierre Sennès has opened an investigation into police leaks during the announcement of the false arrest of Xavier Dupont Ligonnès in Glasgow, he said Thursday to AFP. The investigation was entrusted to the General Inspectorate of National Police (IGPN), said the magistrate.

On Friday night, French police sources reported to several media, including AFP, that the Scottish police had informed France of the arrest of Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès when he arrived in Glasgow on a flight from Paris. According to information from the Scottish police relayed by the French police, the fingerprints of the man arrested corresponded to the wanted man after the murder of his wife and four children in 2011 in Nantes. A DNA test then showed Saturday that it was not the same person.

Determine the origin of the leaks

The Scottish police said on Monday that he "never confirmed, in public or in private" that the man arrested at Glasgow airport was Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès. A French source close to the investigation has assured that the Scottish police had said "four times" to his French counterparts and the "liaison magistrate" to have arrested Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès. Numerous other media - including AFP, the daily Le Monde , Le Figaro , Libération and BFMTV - have published, for the sake of transparency, a timeline detailing how information from different sources has been released. , which led them to broadcast this news on Friday. The investigation must determine the origin of the leaks.

Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès, who has disappeared since the fivefold murder, has been actively sought after since that date. He was last seen in April 2011: on April 14, he was filmed by the camera of a cash machine, and on the 15th, he left on foot a hotel in Roquebrune-sur-Argens (in the Var, south-east of France) with, on the back, a case that can contain a rifle. Six days later, the bodies of his wife and four children were discovered, buried under the roof of the family home, wrapped in sheets and lime.