Girl kidnapped in Dunkirk: father still in Italy, waiting for his return to France in a few weeks

Europe1 .fr with AFP 13:41 p.m., June 09, 2023

The father of the girl kidnapped Tuesday in Dunkirk, suspected of killing his companion by strangulation, is still in Italy and will be back in France "in a few weeks", announced Friday the prosecutor of Dunkirk. "The mechanisms of European criminal cooperation are already in place to obtain his return to France and his presentation to the investigating judges seized," said Sébastien Piève at a press conference at the Dunkirk judicial court.

An open investigation

The accused, Jamel Y., should thus join the France "in a few weeks or maximum a few months". As part of European police and judicial cooperation, "the accused was arrested in Italy, in Civitavecchia", northwest of Rome, Thursday "around 16:30 p.m.", said the prosecutor, who opened a judicial investigation.

READ ALSO – Girl disappeared in Dunkirk: investigation opened for voluntary homicide and kidnapping of a minor

Little Malek, from a first union of Jamel Y., was found safe and sound. According to the prosecutor's office, the man fled to Italy with his daughter shortly after the death of his companion whose lifeless body was discovered Wednesday afternoon by the Dunkirk police, alerted by his mother who "worried" about his silence.

An investigation in flagrance for "voluntary homicide by spouse" and "abduction of a minor of 15 years" was then opened. Two children, aged two years and seven months, were present at the mother's home. A seven-year-old was at his grandmother's house.

"A race against time"

The man had "probably planned to reach Tunisia, the country where he is from," said the prosecutor. A kidnapping alert to find the girl and her father was launched Wednesday evening, 24 hours after her disappearance. This investigation was "a race against time," said Magali Caillat, zonal director of the judicial police.

"A hundred police officers were hired, a dozen searches were carried out and about fifty people were heard," she detailed. In total, "more than 300 calls were received and 72 testimonies verified" including a user of the Dunkirk Arras train, "who brought a lot of elements" according to the prosecutor.

In France, according to official figures, a woman dies every three days from the violence of her spouse or ex-spouse. In front of the family's building, in a working-class district of Dunkirk, neighbors had reported regularly hearing "fights" and "screams" in the family apartment, describing a violent man towards his girlfriend.