A Portuguese court has sentenced a mother and her partner to prison for abandoning their two young sons on a roadside in Portugal, ordering the children’s immediate return to France under state care. The boys, aged two and four, were discovered crying by a motorist near a rural highway in May 2026; their mother and stepfather now face charges of child endangerment and abandonment, according to officials cited by *Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung* .
The court ruled that custody be transferred to French social services, which will oversee the brothers’ repatriation within days. Portuguese prosecutors confirmed that both parents remain in pre-trial detention in Lisbon, where they await formal indictment. Slovak media report that the family had been traveling from Slovakia to Portugal when the abandonment occurred, though French authorities have not yet disclosed the parents’ motives .
The case has drawn sharp criticism from child welfare advocates across Europe, with French Minister for Families calling the abandonment “a grave violation of the most basic duty of care.” Portuguese police say the children were unharmed but showed signs of dehydration and distress when found. No further details about the boys’ identities or long-term placement have been released.