london
AP
—
British police said Saturday they were searching through hours of undisclosed television recordings in a bid to uncover an asylum seeker who was wrongly released from prison after being convicted of sexual assault.
Essex Police said on Saturday that Ethiopian national Hadush Gerberslassie Kebatu, 38, was “last seen in the London area”, adding that officers from three separate forces were cooperating in the investigation.
Kebatu gained national attention after his case sparked a wave of anti-immigration protests in London and other cities in recent months.
He was sentenced to 12 months in prison in September for five offenses, including the sexual assault of a 14-year-old girl in the London suburb of Epping in July, just over a week after arriving in the UK by boat.
Authorities said they were alerted on Friday afternoon that Kebatu had been mistakenly released from prison in Chelmsford, Essex, where he had been seen riding a train. British media reported that he was incorrectly classified as a prisoner scheduled for release rather than being sent to an immigration detention center.
“Officers tracked his movements throughout the night, including reviewing hours of CCTV footage, and this work continues,” police said in a statement.
“We recognize that this situation concerns people and we are fully committed to finding and arresting them as quickly as possible.”
The Bureau of Prisons launched an investigation, during which the prison officer was fired.
Following Kebatou’s arrest and charges, thousands of people protested outside the Bell Hotel in Epping, northeast London, where he was staying with other newly arrived migrants. Protests targeting other hotels housing migrants continued in other British cities and towns, with some demonstrations involving far-right activists and causing chaos.
The group Stand Up to Racism also took part in the counter-protest.
Tensions have long simmered over the Labor government’s policy of using hotels to house unauthorized migrants, particularly the tens of thousands of migrants who cross the English Channel in overloaded boats to reach Britain, and those awaiting decisions on their asylum status.
