Hidden in Switzerland
Woman’s sentence reduced after kidnapping daughter
A mother kidnapped her daughter in France when she was five years old. In 2011, the two were found in Switzerland. A court reduced her prison sentence.
The court has decided: The mother remains in prison, but has to spend much less time behind bars.
In France, a woman (48) has been sentenced to two years and nine months in prison for kidnapping her daughter (17) and hiding with her for years – also in Switzerland. This was decided by the Aix-en-Provence Court of Appeal on Wednesday. The AFP news agency and other French media reported on it.
The mother remains in prison, but her sentence has been reduced compared to the first-instance conviction in September last year, which was then five years in prison without parole.
The conviction comes with a three-year ban from leaving France. The mother must also pay the father CHF 30,000 as compensation for the immaterial damage.
Rape allegations against father
The 48-year-old mother and her 17-year-old daughter were discovered at the beginning of March 2022 during a traffic check in the Morges region in the canton of Vaud. In August they were extradited to France. She had been missing since 2011.
The mother had fled the Toulon region with her then five-year-old daughter. She was at the time in the process of being divorced and was demanding sole custody of their daughter. The woman had accused her ex-husband of raping their daughter. However, the investigation was later discontinued.
The 16-year-old girl was entrusted to the General Directorate for Children and Youth of the Canton of Vaud last year, placed in a home and placed under guardianship. According to the broadcaster France Info, the young person now lives with a family in Switzerland. Accordingly, she also filed a lawsuit against her father there for psychological, physical and sexual violence. (SDA)