3 French citizens found guilty in child kidnapping case

3 French citizens found guilty in child kidnapping case

The first-accused Sebastien Branchu has been sentenced to ten years in prison, while his wife Alexia Gorin Branchu, and her daughter from a previous marriage, Emeline Oeillet, received nine and seven years, respectively.

Sebastien Branchu has chosen not to present his defense or make any statements during the trial, while his wife and her daughter claimed they were unaware of the plot to kidnap the child, snatched from her mother in a street in broad daylight and rescued several hours later after a police chase. They shifted the blame onto the first-accused.

The two women's layer Irina Borojevic told reporters on Thursday that she planned to appeal against the verdict, and that the ruling "confirmed the defense's thesis that this was not an organized crime group."

"This is a compromise verdict and for that reason we are in a way satisfied with it," Borojevic said.

She added that it was possible the French citizens could be transferred to France to serve their sentences.

Natasa Jovicic, the lawyer for the Prenkovics, the family of the kidnapped child, said it was "a thankless task to comment on the length of the prison terms, because when somebody hurts one's child any punishment is insufficient from the point of view of the injured party."

"The court has said what it had to say, I expect the prosecution will appeal this ruling, because the prosecution failed to prove what they proceeded from," Jovicic said.

She once again thanked Serbia's Interior Ministry (MUP) for "doing their job properly" on the day of the kidnapping - "while the Appellate Court Will say what it has to say in the appeals process."

"We hope the judgement will not be overturned, it could only be changed to longer (prison terms)" Jovicic stressed.

Asked to comment on "media insinuations" that the parents of the child planned the kidnapping with the French citizens who have been found guilty today, the lawyer said such accusations "deserve no comment."

"All telephones have been analyzed and there is no proof of any contact between the kidnappers and the family," she said.

The Serbian Organized Crime Prosecution's indictment named Sebastien Branchu as the organizer of a criminal group that took the child, a girl by the name of Masha, in order to transport her to France. According to this, the three planned to use the kidnapped girl's DNA before a French court to show that Emmeline Oeuillet's common-law-husband, with whom they are on bad terms, is not the father of her child.