French couple in court in case of 8 dead newborns

A judicial official said the couple, in their mid-40s, are the parents of the dead babies. The corpses were found on two different parts of their property in Villers-au-Tertre, near the city of Lille. The official was not authorized to be publicly identified because the investigation is under way.

The woman would face charges of manslaughter against minors less than 15 years old and her husband for failure to report a crime and concealment of corpses, prosecutor Eric Vaillain said in a statement. He planned a news conference later Thursday.

The two were detained Wednesday, and French police escorted them to a court hearing in the city of Douai in the Nord region near the French border with Belgium.

Police sealed the doors, gate and windows of the house where the remains of some of the babies were discovered, Kazinform cites Arab News. See www.arabnews.com for full version.