PARIS - France summoned all its state prosecutors to a meeting next week after a body was discovered in the case of a missing 11-year-old girl who appeared to have been the victim of a series of judicial mistakes and missed opportunities to intervene.

Lyhanna, currently identified only by her first name, was reported missing in the small southern French town of Fleurance on May 29, after leaving school in the afternoon. The father of one of her classmates, subject of several complaints of sexual assault against children, has been arrested.

"We can't look at the faces of her family members and tell ourselves that everything went all right," President Emmanuel Macron told reporters as he entered a summit in Montenegro.

Political figures on the right and left, including far-right leader Jordan Bardella and Green leader Marine Tondelier, have said the case exemplifies broader failures in the judicial system, notably in failing to protect women and children from sexual violence.

"Child rapes happen in the hundreds every day, all the time," said Sophie Barre of the feminist collective Nous Toutes ("All of Us").

"There may have been a specific dysfunction (here), but ... we know very well that the justice services are completely overwhelmed and that rape complaints take years to process."

Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu met Interior Minister Laurent Nunez and Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin to discuss the case and the public outcry.

Darmanin told reporters on Thursday, after the announcement that a body had been found, that the two ministries would jointly examine potential mistakes in the case, including a failure to carry out a prosecutor's request to investigate a previous complaint against the suspect. Results would be made public.

His ministry said all France's prosecutors would meet in Paris on Monday morning.

A family lawyer said the sadness and anger of Lyhanna's parents "cannot be expressed", while the suspect's lawyers said he must be given the benefit of a presumption of innocence.

(Reporting by Juliette Jakhbiro, Makini Brice and Inti Landauro; Editing by Jan Harvey and Kevin Liffey)

Copyright Reuters or USA Today Network via Reuters Connect.

This story was originally published June 5, 2026 at 10:03 AM.

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