London police on Sunday morning arrested an asylum seeker who was mistakenly released on Friday from prison where he was serving a sentence for sexual assault, events that sparked a series of anti-immigration protests in the United Kingdom this summer.
Hadush Kebatu, an Ethiopian asylum seeker, was arrested in Finsbury Park, east London, following information from the public, the Metropolitan Police said in a statement.
A planned expulsion
This 38-year-old man was “arrested, is currently detained and will be deported,” Justice Minister David Lammy wrote in X. He announced “the immediate strengthening of release controls” and “a thorough investigation” into the events related to Hadush Kebatu.
The latter was sentenced in September to a year in prison for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl and a woman in Epping, north-east London.
Following his arrest in July, anti-immigration demonstrations, some marked by violence, were organized outside the Bell Hotel in Epping, where he was staying with 130 other asylum seekers, before spreading to other cities in the United Kingdom.
Released by mistake
The mistaken publication of Hadush Kebatu led to an extensive investigation in England. According to The Sun newspaper, he was released when he was going to be transferred from Chelmsford prison, in Essex (southeast England), to an administrative detention center with a view to being deported.
Labor Prime Minister Keir Starmer called the release “totally unacceptable” on Friday night. The government was harshly criticized. “The whole system is collapsing under the Labor regime,” attacked the leader of the Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch.
On Friday, Hadush Kebatu was reluctant to leave his prison, according to an interview given by a host to Sky News television. The latter said he saw him return to the prison several times in a “very confused” state, only to be turned away by staff and taken to the police station. According to this driver, he asked, “Where am I going? What am I doing?”
Source: BFM TV
