The Nantes courthouse, where the judicial investigation is being conducted. Credit: Flibust1er / Wikimedia Commons, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).
Four months after the last sign of life from Manon Relandeau, her mother is asking Emmanuel Macron to intervene with Algiers. The farm owner’s partner, the main suspect and presumed innocent, has been held in Algeria since May. His extradition to France is ruled out under the bilateral convention if he was an Algerian national at the time of the events. The issue now centers on cooperation between the two justice systems.
An Appeal To The Élysée Four Months After The Disappearance
Nathalie, Manon Relandeau’s mother, made her appeal on Thursday, August 6, on ICI Loire-Océan. She says she can no longer bear the lack of answers about her daughter’s fate. She wants the President of the Republic to intervene with the Algerian authorities. “I don’t want to do politics, I just want answers,” she insists.
This public statement expresses the family’s waiting period. By itself, it does not make it possible to conclude that the French authorities have remained inactive or that Algeria refuses to cooperate. It does, however, highlight a concrete difficulty. The actions carried out on either side of the Mediterranean are not publicly detailed. The same is true of any Algerian responses.
The family also launched a crowdfunding campaign on August 1 to keep Manon Relandeau’s farm operating. The animals must continue to be fed and cared for. This material support does not change the procedure, but it is a reminder that the disappearance is already having everyday consequences while the investigation remains open.
Has Manon Relandeau Been Found?
No. Manon Relandeau, a 31-year-old farmer, lives in Saint-Étienne-de-Montluc, in Loire-Atlantique. She has not been heard from since March 27, 2026. Her loved ones reported her missing on April 3. No public evidence currently makes it possible to determine what happened to her, and no body has been found.
On April 7, the Nantes prosecutor’s office opened a judicial investigation for murder by a spouse and abduction of a minor. The prosecutor said the investigation “points toward the hypothesis of a murder.” This wording describes an investigative direction: it does not prove either Manon Relandeau’s death or anyone’s guilt.
Manon Relandeau’s partner had left France on April 2 with their daughter, then 15 months old. He was arrested on April 27 in Algeria after an international alert requested by France. Algerian justice placed him in pretrial detention on May 6, according to the Nantes prosecutor’s office, as cited by AFP. He remains presumed innocent until a court has found him guilty.
Two other people were formally charged in France in the spring, then released under judicial supervision. They are presumed innocent as well. Being implicated does not make it possible to reconstruct the facts with certainty. The judicial authorities have not made public the specific evidence supporting those charges.
A Red Notice Is Not Extradition
The arrest in Algeria was made possible by an Interpol Red Notice. This tool is used to locate a wanted person and request their provisional arrest under the law of the country concerned. Interpol states that a Red Notice is neither an international arrest warrant nor a ruling on guilt.
The distinction is essential. The notice allowed Algerian services to identify and arrest the suspect on their territory. It does not compel Algeria to hand him over to France and does not determine which jurisdiction could try him. Extradition is handled through a separate procedure, governed by a convention between the two states.
Why Is Manon Relandeau’s Partner Not Being Extradited?
The French-Algerian extradition convention was signed in Algiers on January 27, 2019. It took effect on July 1, 2021, and was then published in the Official Journal on July 11. Its Article 3 prohibits each of the two countries from extraditing its own nationals. The nationality taken into account is the one held at the time of the events in question. The Nantes prosecutor’s office described the main suspect as an Algerian national. Under these conditions, handing him over to France is not the path provided for by the treaty.
This rule does not mean the process stops. Paragraphs 2 and 3 of Article 3 provide for refusal to extradite a national. At the request of the other state, the case must then be submitted to the competent authorities. They may initiate proceedings if appropriate. France must send a request through diplomatic channels, along with the file and available evidence. Algeria must inform France of the action taken.
This is neither an automatic transfer of a trial nor a guarantee of conviction. Algerian magistrates assess the materials received under their own law, while the French judicial investigation may continue. Any trial in Algeria would therefore require local proceedings. Its charges, timeline, and concrete guarantees are not yet publicly known in this case.
What International Letters Rogatory Allow
Extradition and judicial cooperation are governed by two different texts. The French-Algerian convention on judicial cooperation in criminal matters was signed in Paris on October 5, 2016. It took effect on May 1, 2018, and was then published in the Official Journal on June 6. It commits France and Algeria to providing each other broad assistance in criminal proceedings. It allows for the transmission of documents, the collection of testimony, or the organization of certain interviews. It also allows investigative acts to be requested on the territory of the other country.
An international letter rogatory allows a magistrate to ask a foreign authority to carry out one or more specific actions. It does not give French investigators the power to act alone in Algeria. Algerian authorities carry out the request in accordance with their law, then transmit the results through the предусмотрed channels.
A request for prosecution goes further: it allows Algerian justice to examine the facts alleged against its national. The Red Notice, the letter rogatory, and the request for prosecution therefore serve three distinct functions. They are used to locate and provisionally arrest, obtain investigative acts, and then consider local proceedings. Confusing them wrongly creates the impression that an international arrest automatically leads to extradition.
Public sources do not specify which letters rogatory have already been sent or executed. They also do not indicate whether a formal request for prosecution was transmitted with the full case file. Nor do they make it possible to confirm the opening of an Algerian investigation into the facts examined in Nantes. These are the main gray areas the family’s appeal seeks to clear up.
What Emmanuel Macron Can Do, And What He Cannot Do
The President of the Republic cannot order an extradition that contradicts the convention, nor can he dictate a decision to an Algerian judge. He also cannot take the place of the investigating judges in Nantes. His possible role is political and diplomatic. He can ask the relevant ministries to follow up on French requests and seek a precise account of the exchanges. He can also bring the case to the Algerian executive and ensure that cooperation channels are working.
At the press briefing following the Council of Ministers meeting on April 29, Maud Bregeon had explained that she did not know the details of the case. The government spokesperson had offered to get back to him from her office within the following hours. She had also invited the journalist to ask the Interior Ministry and the Quai d’Orsay. This official response, before the pretrial detention in Algeria, did not shed light on the judicial developments.
Since then, France and Algeria have publicly shown their desire to restore an operational dialogue. This concerns notably the tracking of fugitives and judicial cooperation. However, nothing allows this resumption to be linked to any specific effect on the Manon Relandeau investigation. As of August 6, no more recent public response on this case has been identified. That applies to the Élysée, the Justice Ministry, and the Algerian authorities.
French action therefore consists less in obtaining the suspect’s forced return than in making the existing mechanisms work and documenting them. For the family, the urgency is now twofold. They want to know what actions were carried out in Algeria and obtain reliable information about the result. This expectation must not become a premature conclusion about Manon Relandeau’s fate.