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Thursday April 25, 2024

Kidnapped French girl rescued

By AFP
April 19, 2021

Nancy, France: An eight-year-old girl was rescued in Switzerland on Sunday, five days after being kidnapped from her grandmother’s French home in a "military" style operation with the alleged involvement of her mother. After a massive search, investigators found the girl, Mia, and her mother Lola Montemaggi in a squat inside an abandoned factory in the Swiss municipality of Sainte-Croix, French prosecutors said. The 28-year-old mother was arrested along with five others accused of helping her.

Three of the men posed as child welfare officials -- even using forged identifications -- to convince Mia’s maternal grandmother to hand her over at their home in the village of Poulieres near France’s border with Switzerland on Tuesday.