Provincial police (SQ) announced on Thursday the arrest in Hungary of one of the province’s 10 most wanted criminals, who had escaped from a minimum-security federal detention centre in May.
The SQ said that 32-year-old Yacine Zouaoui was arrested on Tuesday in Budapest, Hungary, and that extradition proceedings were underway to bring him back to Canada and prosecute him for escape.
Zouaoui, who was serving an unspecified sentence for second-degree murder and assault causing bodily harm, was reported missing from the Montée Saint-François federal institution in Laval on May 23.
He had been convicted of the fatal stabbing of a 43-year-old man in Burnaby, British Columbia, in 2011.
The SQ says his arrest in Budapest was made possible ‘thanks to information received from a partner in the last few days,’ and with the help of the RCMP, the Correctional Service of Canada, Interpol and the Canada Border Services Agency.
The Correctional Service said it was working with the SQ to investigate Zouaoui’s escape from the Laval prison.
-This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Sept. 5, 2024.