Dutch fugitive convicted in mistaken ID murder caught in Belgium

The police arrested a 33-year-old fugitive in Belgium who has to serve a 20-year-long prison sentence in the Netherlands for murder. While trying to flee from the police, the man crashed into another car, injuring multiple people, the Dutch police said.

The Dutch police cooperated with the Belgian police in this arrest. The man was arrested on Sunday.

In December, the court of Gelderland sentenced the 33-year-old man to 20 years in prison for complicity in a mistaken identity murder of Nijmegen handyman Mehmet Kiliçsoy in Beuningen. Before the authorities could take him into custody, the man cut through his ankle monitor and fled.

The police immediately launched an investigation into the man’s whereabouts, teaming up with the Belgian police, and issued a European arrest warrant for him.

On Sunday morning, the Belgian police found the man in a car with a woman near the town of Wommelgem. The police tried to arrest him, but he sped off. The man crashed his vehicle into various street furniture, hit a police officer, and collided with another passenger car before coming to a stop. He got out of the car and tried to flee on foot, but the police quickly caught up to him and arrested him.

The people in the other passenger car got hurt in the crash, as did the woman in the vehicle with the fugitive. “All the injured were taken to a hospital for examination and have since been discharged,” the police said.

The Netherlands requested the man’s extradition, and the Belgian authorities have already started the procedure, the police said.