SINGAPORE – Although Frenchman Rémy Daillet-Wiedemann, his live-in pregnant partner Leonie Bardet de Lestang and their three children have been deported from Malaysia, their trip hit a snag last night when she fell ill and was hospitalised at a facility near Changi International Airport.
Their fate remains unclear as of this morning as they did not board Air France Flight 257 – a direct flight to Paris – which departed Changi at 10.35pm.
Two of the three children, aged 17 and nine, are from Bardet’s former marriage, while the youngest, aged two, is a child shared by the couple. Her ex-husband now resides in France.
It is understood that they are under the supervision of Singaporean police, while France’s diplomatic and Interpol security channels scrambled to figure out what to do next.
Interpol is the lead agency in view that the Malaysian Immigration Department has relinquished its authority when the group left the country yesterday.
There might be a possibility that they will be returned to Malaysia but with Bardet in hospital, her lawyers have expressed concern over her condition.
The couple and the children were expelled from Malaysia for overstaying in Langkawi while there is an international arrest warrant issued by Interpol on Daillet-Wiedemann for his alleged role in the abduction of an 8-year-old girl from her grandmother in France last April.
The girl was subsequently rescued by French and Swiss police in Switzerland after she was allegedly forced to hike across the Swiss Alps as part of an escape trail, but the authorities caught up with them.
“They are in Singapore, they are not on the plane,” the couple’s French lawyer Jean-Cristophe Basson-Larbi told AFP.
Earlier, Larbi shared the frantic attempts by his law firm to delay the deportation in Singapore, citing Bardet’s pregnancy meant that it is a matter of life and death.
Daillet-Wiedemann, aged 55, is a controversial figure, who went to Langkawi over six years ago after he was expelled from his political party Modem in 2010.
He had served as its political representative for one term in France.
In Langkawi, it was said that he began to subscribe and propagate far-right conspiracy theories, including those extolled by the QAnon movement, as well as social media posts refuting Covid-19 vaccines, the use of masks and 5G telecommunication network.
In a video posted online after the alleged kidnapping of the girl, he tried to challenge the abduction charge.
Daillet-Wiedemann, who had attained a social media influencer status online in France through his base in Langkawi, became a conspiracy poster boy for reportedly encouraging his online audience to overthrow the French government and not pay their taxes.
Meanwhile, the couple’s associate in Langkawi, Amor Adjal said lawyers tried to warn authorities that Bardet would easily fall ill as she had previously suffered from labour complications during her last pregnancy.
“I understand there is a letter from her gynaecologist at the Island Hospital (Penang) ascertaining such a situation so her deportation should not have gone through.” – The Vibes, June 14, 2021
Additional reporting by Rachel Yeoh
