It is a matter “as legally incomprehensible as it is humanly painful”, according to the person’s lawyers. On March 31, a 38-year-old man was arrested at Marseille airport due to an arrest warrant dating from… 2011, reports The Parisian.
13 years old, this warrant was issued by the Italian authorities for the man’s alleged participation in the robbery of a jewelry store in 2009. The thirty-year-old was arrested as he was preparing to take a flight to Algeria, for a family vacation.
A forgotten arrest warrant
The robbery in Italy, during which 700,000 euros worth of jewelry was stolen, was likely carried out by a group of French people. A man arrested just after the incident was arrested and sentenced by Italian courts to five years in prison. The thirty-year-old has always denied his involvement in the robbery.
The lawyers of the man, now a father and construction worker, are surprised that the arrest warrant has not been executed until now. Especially since their client was easy to find: he “never fled” according to the lawyers, and above all spent six years in prison, from 2010 to 2016, for another case.
“I don’t understand why no one came to see me before,” declared the thirty-year-old during his placement in judicial detention at Marseille airport. “I had a bracelet for eighteen months or a year, and a parole for a year! » Now placed under judicial supervision, he risks extradition to Italy and intends to contest the arrest warrant.