JOHOR BARU, Jan 26 — Six-year-old Argentinian Alum Langone Avalos who was reportedly abducted by her father from their native country and taken to Johor may no longer be in the southern state.
Sources told Malay Mail the girl was last spotted in Kulai where she was enrolled in a kindergarten there may still be in the country, but is likely to have been moved out of state after local media highlighted her case.
“The trio may have recently moved to another state from Johor following the case being highlighted recently,” said one of the sources, referring to Alum, her 41-year-old father Jorge Gabriel Langone and an Argentinian woman said to be his current girlfriend Candela Soledad Gutierrez, 35.
Federal police and the International Criminal Police Organisation (Interpol) have been roped in to investigate the abduction as alleged by Alum’s Argentinian mother Elizabeth Avalos, 27, who held a news conference in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday on the matter.
But sources told Malay Mail that the case is complex as it involves foreigners, while the police reports lodged on claims of abduction are from third parties.
“In such instances, the third parties lack locus standi or the right to bring an action on the issue,” another of the sources said.
Malay Mail understands Alum, her father and his girlfriend entered the country illegally through Johor.
When contacted, Johor police chief Datuk Mohd Khalil Kader Mohd said federal criminal investigators were handling the case.
“I can only confirm that a police report on the matter was recently lodged with the Johor Baru North district police where it was related to an earlier separate report by Argentinian Embassy officials at the Tun HS Lee police station in Kuala Lumpur,” he said.
Mohd Khalil added that Bukit Aman will be working together with Interpol on the alleged abduction claims.
