Judicial ruling in Dinant: couple risks prison sentence after fleeing with their infant
A man and woman in their thirties appeared before Dinant courts for taking their three-month-old baby to France in an attempt to circumvent a decision by the Youth Aid Service.
Judicial ruling in Dinant: couple risks prison sentence after fleeing with their infant
A man and woman in their thirties were tried on 17 June by the Dinant criminal court. They are accused of concealing their three-month-old newborn and keeping him unlawfully outside Belgium between 20 April and 9 May 2023. The Youth Aid Service had ordered the child to be placed in care.
The events took place in the Grenoble area, where law enforcement finally intercepted the couple. The arrest occurred on 9 May, a week after they were ordered to immediately return the child to Belgian soil. During the hearing, the prosecutor's magistrate condemned the conflicting accounts presented by the two accused: the trip was alternately described as a long-planned stay with a paternal uncle, then as a visit to a friend of the mother.
The female defendant, whose three other children have already been placed with youth services, reportedly told her own mother that she refused to passively accept the removal of the baby. On the basis of these elements, the public prosecutor requested an actual prison sentence of twenty months for each of them, as the pair's previous convictions no longer permitted the granting of a suspended sentence.
Both defendants flatly denied having been notified of the placement order. The man's solicitor argued for acquittal. The woman, for her part, claimed that she possessed neither a passport nor money, only enough to feed her child.
The sitting magistrate, Mr Hauquier, however found the procedure lacking. He required the youth services file to be incorporated into the case in order to establish whether the individuals had actually been notified. The trial was adjourned to 31 August for further investigation, ahead of a substantive hearing at a later date.
Source: La DH
Source: DHnet