A fellow inmate of the murderer, who escaped from the Regensburg district court in January, helped the police with the manhunt. The day after the escape, the prisoner turned to officials at the prison in Würzburg and was questioned by police officers that evening, a spokesman for the Regensburg public prosecutor said on Thursday. Initially, several media had reported about it.
The prisoner informed the police that the fugitive had a mini mobile phone, which he himself used to call his wife several times. The investigators then went to the prisoner’s wife and checked the number of the mini cell phone, the spokesman said. He also reported on a possible escape route via France. Since investigators then monitored the number, it was possible to track the cell phone on its way from Regensburg to France. French police officers finally arrested the Algerian in the neighboring country.
According to the newspaper reports, the fellow prisoner also claims to have overheard a conversation between the convicted murderer and the escape plans before the escape. According to the spokesman for the public prosecutor’s office, there is no evidence of this. The investigation into the escape of the convicted killer is still ongoing. They would be led against unknown. Two people are therefore considered suspects, since the 40-year-old is said to have been accommodated with them during his escape.
The man escaped from the Regensburg District Court on January 5 during a break in the hearing. On the fifth day of his escape, investigators caught him in his sister’s car in France. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2013 for the murder of a kiosk owner in Nuremberg and was in prison in Straubing. He had been transferred to Würzburg for resisting law enforcement officials there and had to answer before the Regensburg District Court.