Freiburg, Germany, Feb 19, (dpa/GNA) – A fugitive who led police on a six-day manhunt through Germany’s Black Forest before finally being captured has been sentenced to three years in prison.
A court in Offenburg found on Friday that the defendant – identified as Yves R – made himself guilty of crimes including hostage-taking when he threatened four officers with a pistol and stole their service weapons last July.
The 32-year-old man, who admitted in the Offenburg court to disarming the officers and fleeing with the weapons, had been tried on charges including hostage-taking and violating arms laws.
Police had encountered him at a garden shed he was squatting in on the edge of the forest.
The man disappeared into the woods, triggering a large-scale manhunt involving hundreds of officers supported by thermal imaging cameras, search dogs and helicopters. He was eventually captured near the small town of Oppenau, west of Stuttgart.
Yves R’s defence lawyers had been pushing for a one-and-a-half year prison sentence, arguing that the events of last July did not amount to hostage-taking.
GNA