Their run will have lasted four days. The detainee who escaped last Wednesday from Pontoise hospital was arrested in Germany with his accomplice, AFP learned from sources familiar with the matter. The man and his companion, who had shot one of the guards with a long weapon, were arrested in Düsseldorf by the German police, thanks to information from the central direction of the French judicial police (DCPJ), said Sunday one of the police sources, confirming information from the Point.
The fugitive, 28 years old and imprisoned in Osny remand center, arrived on the evening of December 22 in this hospital center in Val-d’Oise. He was the subject of “a medical extraction after he was discovered in his cell in the process of mutilating himself”, according to the prison administration.
A suicide attempt and a decoy
“They were located very very quickly” thanks to information from the National Fugitive Search Brigade (BNRF), the service specializing in this type of investigation. The escapee had simulated a suicide attempt on Tuesday evening and was transported to the Pontoise hospital center. Arrived at the emergency room, he was awaited by his companion, a minor according to the Pontoise prosecutor’s office, who opened fire on the unarmed prison officers who were escorting him, thus allowing his escape.
The sources, however, did not mention at this stage the arrest of a third man, who would have been on the lookout, according to the first elements of the investigation provided by a police source. The BNRF and the PJ of Versailles had been cosaisies of the investigation, entrusted since Friday to an examining magistrate. The Minister of Justice Eric Dupond-Moretti went to the Osny remand center to bring his “unwavering support” to the supervisors who supervised the medical transfer. He had previously met the injured prison officer at the Pontoise hospital.