Twenty days, at least, since Antoine Devulder disappeared. Since December 18, 2024, Séverine A., his ex-wife, has been on alert. “I’m afraid that he is in the north of France, where his parents live, and that he will kill me. I don’t feel safe at all. In the evening, when I am at home, I close the doors and I check everything,” testifies this nurse who had filed a complaint for multiple marital rapes and led to the referral of her ex-husband to court.
European arrest warrant
The overwhelming facts left little doubt about the outcome of the trial. The doctor chose to flee, probably a few days before his trial. Here he is hit with a European Arrest Warrant (EAW). This judicial tool, which came into force in 2004, replaced the extradition procedure, which involved action by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The decision is now strictly judicial. The 27 member countries of the European Union endorsed a platform of agreement including 32 categories of offense, for which this warrant could be issued.
International Reporting Unit
A perpetrator wanted to carry out a sentence enters this panel. Antoine Devulder, sentenced to 15 years in prison, was therefore included in the file of wanted persons in France. His file was then published on the SCCOPOL platform (Central Police Operational Cooperation Section). This service, based in Hauts-de-Seine, and made up of some 80 gendarmes, police officers and customs officers, is the reception point for requests for police cooperation. It houses the USI – International Reporting Unit – which processes European arrest warrants but also Interpol red files, with a view to arresting fugitives.
“A runaway is expensive”
Antoine Devulder is also the subject of an Interpol red notice. He appears, in profile, in a photo, among 6,650 people wanted around the world. How long will he be able to escape the legal authorities? “It all depends on how much money he has. A runaway is expensive,” testifies a former divisional commissioner, recalling, at the same time, that he must pay in cash, otherwise he will leave digital bank traces.
In Corsica or Morocco?
Where is the 59-year-old doctor? Did he find refuge in his native Lille region, where his father, a retired obstetrician, and his mother, an anesthetist, still live? Did he go to Belgium? “I would like him to be arrested quickly and for the gendarmerie to give me news,” adds his ex-wife who, “without being certain,” is wondering about a possible escape to Corsica or Morocco, where his ex- husband could have falling points.
A Quimperloi radiologist untraceable
Will Antoine Devulder succeed in disappearing like Quimperlois Mohammed Fréhat? In June 2013, taking advantage of being under judicial supervision, this radiologist, accused of sexual assault on 32 patients, fled at the end of the second day of his trial before the Finistère court. His car was flashed in Nantes, on the night of June 20 to 21, 2013. Suspected of having found refuge in Algeria, his native country, he has since been sentenced to 18 years in prison and is the subject of an arrest warrant. European judgment. He remains nowhere to be found.
letelegramme Fr Trans