Malaysia expels Frenchman accused of inspiring kidnapping

PARIS (AP) — A Frenchman accused of inspiring the kidnapping in eastern France of a girl whose mother had lost custody was expelled by Malaysia on Sunday.

France had issued an Interpol arrest notice for Remy Daillet-Wiedemann, who was detained on immigration charges by Malaysia after living in the Southeast Asian country for several years.

Daillet, his pregnant partner and children were placed on a commercial flight on Sunday, a Malaysian official said. Prosecutors accuse him of helping organize the kidnapping of an 8-year-old girl in eastern France.

Daillet runs a website calling for the overthrow of the French government and supports extremist QAnon-style conspiracy theories.

His lawyer released a statement before their expulsion denouncing France for exercising political pressure on Malaysia. The lawyer, Jean-Christophe Basson-Larbi, said that Daillet had neither been convicted nor charged in the child's kidnapping. The girl was found with her mother a few days after she was abducted.

Basson-Larbi said Daillet's only link to the case was “as a source of political inspiration for some of the child's kidnappers.”

The lawyer said French authorities had pressured Daillet and his partner to buy plane tickets back to France despite the partner's risky pregnancy.

A Malaysian official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the case, said they boarded a commercial flight Sunday morning.

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Eileen Ng in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, contributed.