False arrest of Dupont de Ligonnes: an investigation is opened

TheNantes prosecutor Pierre Sennes opened an investigation into police leaks during the announcement of the false arrest of Xavier Dupont Ligonnes in Glasgow, he told AFP Thursday.

Friday night, French police sources had reported to several media, including AFP, that the Scottish police had informed France of the arrest of Xavier Dupont Ligonnes, arriving in Glasgow on a flight from Paris.

According to information from the Scottish police relayed by the French police, the fingerprints of the man arrested corresponded to the wanted man after the murder of his wife and four children in 2011 in Nantes. A DNA test then showed Saturday that it was not the same person.

The Scottish police said on Monday that he had "never confirmed, in public or in private" that the man arrested at Glasgow airport was Xavier Dupont de Ligonnes. A French source close to the investigation has assured that the Scottish police had said "four times" to his French counterparts and the "liaison magistrate" to have arrested Xavier Dupont de Ligonnes.

Numerous other media – including AFP, the daily Le Monde, Le Figaro, Liberation and BFMTV – have published, for the sake of transparency, a timeline detailing how information from different sources has been released. , which led them to broadcast this news on Friday.

Xavier Dupont de Ligonnes, who has disappeared since the fivefold murder, has been actively sought after since that date. He was last seen in April 2011: on April 14, he was filmed by the camera of a cash machine, and on the 15th, he left on foot a hotel in Roquebrune-sur-Argens (in the Var, south-east of France) with, on the back, a case that can contain a rifle.

Six days later, the bodies of his wife and four children were discovered, buried under the roof of the family home, wrapped in sheets and lime.