‘Manhunt’ underway in capital
A police manhunt is underway to recapture a 36-year-old Algerian who managed not only to escape from police custody as he was being taken into a court room, but remove his handcuffs at the same time.
This latest embarrassment for the country’s PSP public security police (the force is already under intense scrutiny since the shooting dead of a Cape Verdean man in October) appears to be being played down, in the hope perhaps that the man is recaptured very quickly.
According to reports, police are “taking steps” to find him.
The Algerian was arrested on Sunday in the departures area of Lisbon’s Humberto Delgado airport under a European arrest warrant issued by German authorities for arson.
Further details on his ‘past’ have not yet made it into the national press. But it is clear the man is determined not to be returned to Germany.
As far as the account of the escape goes, it seems that once the doors of the PSP van in which the Algerian was being transported were opened, he “managed to escape and got rid of the handcuffs, fleeing through the streets of downtown Lisbon”.
In today’s beautiful temperatures, downtown Lisbon will have been filled with tourists enjoying the sunshine, so it may have been quite easy to blend in.
For now, there is no update on the escapee’s movements – according to Jornal de Notícias, he out-ran agents pursuing him, removing his cuffs as he ran.
natasha.donn@portugalresident.com
