Nov. 7 (UPI) — A man who was accidentally freed from a British prison on Oct. 29 has been arrested in London, police said.
Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, 24, from Algeria, was let out of Wandsworth Prison in south London and was arrested Friday in Finsbury Park in north London, London’s Metropolitan police said.
There was a manhunt for Kaddour-Cherif and William Smith, 35, who was released Monday, also accidentally. Smith turned himself in Thursday.
Kaddour-Cherif was convicted of indecent exposure in November 2024. He was given an 18-month community order — an order for treatment and community service — and five years on the sex offender registry.
Five years ago, Kaddour-Cherif was identified as a person who overstayed his visa. He had not been deported. When he was released from prison incorrectly, he was serving a sentence for trespass with intent to steal.
Smith’s release happened while he was serving a sentence of 45 months for fraud offenses. A court clerical error notified the prison he had been given a suspended sentence.
The problem-plagued prison didn’t realize its mistake in Kaddour-Cherif’s case for six days.
Accidental releases have become a hot-button issue in the United Kingdom. In October, Chelmsford Prison accidentally released Ethiopian asylum-seeker Hadush Kebatu, who was serving a sentence for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl and a woman.
He was free for two days before being captured in a London park and flown to Ethiopia on Oct. 29.
Justice Secretary David Lammy has come under fire from Parliament for the releases. He was questioned in the House of Commons on Wednesday about whether any more asylum seekers had been accidentally released since Kebatu.
Lammy, who was filling in for Prime Minister Keir Starmer who is out of the country, wouldn’t answer. It was later discovered that Lammy had been told about Kaddour-Cherif overnight.
But neither of the two released prisoners were asylum seekers. Smith is a British citizen, and Kaddour-Cherif never applied for asylum.
In a statement, Lammy said he was “outraged and appalled by the foreign criminal wanted by the police.”
