The man had been wanted since March 2023, when he fled his trial in Besançon and was also suspected of having killed a father with a stray bullet in November 2023 in Dijon. Arrested at Marcoc, an extradition procedure to France is underway.
A man wanted for fleeing his trial in Besançon in March 2023 for attempted murder, and suspected of having since killed a father with a stray bullet near a deal point in Dijon, was arrested in Morocco, AFP learned this Monday January 13 from judicial sources.
Sahbi.E, 26, was arrested on Friday January 10 in Marrakech and an extradition procedure is underway, Dijon prosecutor Olivier Caracotch told AFP.
He had been actively sought since March 8, 2023 after fleeing during the deliberations of his trial, where he was sentenced to seven years of imprisonment for seriously injuring a thirty-year-old with five bullets in 2020 in the sensitive Planoise district of Besançon.
“Misdeeds” committed during his flight
Sahbi E. then targeted this man by mistake when he wanted to target a drug trafficker with whom he had a dispute, according to the Besançon prosecutor’s office.
“Since then, he has continued to commit misdeeds while he was wanted,” Besançon prosecutor Étienne Manteaux told AFP, who is due to give a press conference on Monday at 4:30 p.m.
Since his flight, he is suspected of having participated in shootings which left two people injured, also in Planoise, in June 2023, and in violence in front of a nightclub near Besançon in November 2023.
Sahb.E was also wanted for the murder in Dijon, on the night of November 25 to 26, 2023, of a 55-year-old father, killed by a stray bullet.
A refugee who had fled the conflict in Kosovo, the fifty-year-old slept with his family in his apartment located just above a deal point which had been targeted by a burst of heavy weapons with around sixty bullets. One of them ricocheted and hit the father in his bed, killing him instantly.
His DNA found on a vehicle
Shortly after the incident, the shooters’ car, a stolen vehicle, was found, making it possible to make the link with another vehicle which had been intercepted at the border with Spain, with its two occupants.
The latter were indicted, with four alleged accomplices, but Sahbi.E, whose DNA had been found in one of the vehicles, remained untraceable.
