UK police arrest Algerian national wrongly released from prison
British police have arrested Brahim Kaddour Cherif, a 24-year-old Algerian convicted sex offender who was mistakenly released from prison last month, the Metropolitan Police confirmed on Friday.
Kaddour Cherif was detained in north London, ending a week-long manhunt that had intensified public scrutiny of Justice Minister David Lammy and the government’s handling of the prison system, News.Az reports, citing Reuters.
The arrest follows a recent rise in incidents of prisoners being wrongly released, including the accidental release of Ethiopian migrant Hadush Kebatu, whose case sparked protests outside a hotel housing asylum seekers. Another inmate, fraudster William Smith, was also released in error but later surrendered himself to authorities.
Officials said Kaddour Cherif had been mistakenly freed on October 29.
Britain’s prison system is facing mounting pressure, with the number of inmates in England and Wales doubling over the past 30 years. The government has been forced to expand an early release scheme to ease overcrowding.
Justice Minister Lammy called the spike in mistaken releases “unacceptable” in a post on X on Thursday, saying that the government is working to modernise prison systems to prevent such errors in the future.
Opposition parties and prison officials have criticised the government’s approach, blaming overcrowding and chronic underinvestment for the ongoing problems in the prison estate.
Similar news
