A Romanian man who staged a dramatic escape from a Dusseldorf courthouse nearly two months ago has been tracked down and arrested in Brussels, German police and prosecutors said on Friday.
Belgian authorities detained the 26-year-old on Thursday after a cross-border manhunt, the statement said. He is set to be extradited to Germany.
The man had been convicted of serious gang theft and was in custody in Germany on the basis of an Austrian extradition request. On July 21, he was brought to a secure meeting room at the Dusseldorf district court to confer privately with his lawyer.
As he left the room, he slipped through a side door into the inner courtyard, scaled a high security fence and fled, triggering a search that has now ended with his capture in the Belgian capital.