No transfer to France yet for partner of mother who abandoned children in Portugal

Portuguese authorities have consented to execute a French arrest warrant for a French citizen, the partner of a woman suspected of abandoning her children in Portugal last month. However, the execution of the warrant is contingent on the man's detention no longer being deemed necessary for the Portuguese judicial proceedings.

The Cour d'appel d'Evora in southern Portugal is set to review the case of Marine R., the mother of the two boys, aged four and five, who were discovered crying by the side of a road. Both she and her partner were taken into provisional detention and charged with endangering or abandoning children. The French national also faces charges of aggravated assault and battery against one of the boys.

While the 55-year-old French man has not opposed his extradition to France, the court stated that it "will only intervene when the interested party's detention ceases to be of interest" to the ongoing investigation by the Setubal tribunal. The European arrest warrant has been limited in scope to acts not committed on Portuguese territory.

The two brothers were found on May 19 by a motorist on a national road south of Lisbon. Their mother and her partner were arrested two days later near Fatima. French authorities had been searching for the mother and children since May 11, after their disappearance was reported from Colmar in eastern France.