OSAKA – Two days after he escaped custody in Osaka Prefecture, prosecutors on Monday caught a man indicted on drug charges who fled while being transferred to the police after his bail was revoked.
Ryotaro Oue, who was indicted for using illegal stimulants and possessing marijuana, was apprehended by the Osaka District Public Prosecutor’s Office on a bridge over the Yodo River in Osaka.
Authorities had been searching for Oue since his escape from a vehicle on Saturday, during which two male officials suffered minor injuries while trying to restrain the 42-year-old man.
A male acquaintance who sheltered Oue was also arrested by investigators on suspicion of harboring a fugitive.
According to investigative sources, a man resembling Oue’s description was spotted in a car on Sunday morning in the city’s Sumiyoshi Ward, located a dozen or so kilometers from where he escaped, as he attempted to shake off his pursuers.
The same vehicle was also seen traveling along a number of expressways before being abandoned in a parking lot in Kita Ward.
Oue escaped custody in Higashiosaka at around 4 a.m. Saturday, when an official from the prosecutor’s office removed the suspect’s left handcuff after he complained of it being too tight, the office said.
Oue, who had been sitting in the third row of seats, opened the door of the moving vehicle and jumped out as the female driver brought the vehicle to a stop. A scuffle continued outside the vehicle, but he managed to get away barefoot, with handcuffs still attached to his right wrist and a cord around his waist.
His bail was revoked last Thursday after he did not appear at three consecutive hearings.
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