THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
November 11, 2019 at 17:50 JST
OSAKA--Police on Nov. 11 captured a man facing drug charges who escaped from a prosecutor's office vehicle while being escorted to a detention facility, according to investigative sources.
The sources said that Ryotaro Oue, 42, was rounded up at around 2 p.m. in Osaka’s Kita Ward.
On Nov. 10, Osaka prefectural police spotted someone who was likely Oue in Osaka’s Sumiyoshi Ward, but the man fled in a van. Police lost track of the vehicle, which traveled through the Hanshin Expressway loop line and other places.
Later that day, the van was found in a coin-operated parking lot in Kita Ward.
Police arrested an acquaintance of Oue in his 30s on suspicion of harboring the escapee. Police believe there could be other collaborators in the case.
According to the Osaka District Public Prosecutors Office, Oue escaped custody in Higashi-Osaka, Osaka Prefecture, at around 4 a.m. on Nov. 9.
While three officers of the prosecutors office were taking him to a detention facility in a van, Oue complained that his handcuffs were too tight.
When one of the officers unlocked the left-hand side to adjust them, Oue made his escape. He opened the car door after throwing off the officers and fled with his right hand still in the cuffs and a rope around his waist.
Oue, who was arrested on April 10, was indicted on charges of violating the Stimulants Control Law and Cannabis Control Law.
Although he was granted bail on April 26, it was revoked on Nov. 7 after he failed to appear for his trial scheduled between September and October at the Kishiwada branch of the Osaka District Court.
Police located Oue in Higashi-Osaka and handed him over to the Osaka prosecutors office on Nov. 9.
But as the Kawachi police station in Higashi-Osaka did not have space to detain him, he was being transported to the Hiraoka police station, about 1.8 kilometers away.
It was the second such incident in only two weeks involving the Osaka prosecutors office.
Oue’s escape came after a female defendant charged with violating traffic laws fled in a car on Oct. 30 after she reported to the prosecutors’ office in Kishiwada, Osaka Prefecture.
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