KUALA LUMPUR, March 26, 2007 (AFP) - French "Spiderman" Alain Robert escaped a jail sentence after prosecutors decided not charge the daredevil for scaling Malaysia's tallest buildings, a senior police official said Monday.

Government lawyers also allowed Robert to leave the country after finding no grounds to charge him in court, the official said.

"There were no grounds to charge him after referring him to the deputy public prosecutor," district assistant police commissioner Mohamad Zulkarnain told AFP. He declined to elaborate.

Officials familiar with the case said Robert left Malaysia over the weekend.

The 44-year-old climber was detained by police last Tuesday in his second attempt to scale the nation's Petronas Twin Towers using his bare hands.

Robert, brandishing a Malaysian flag, was grabbed by firemen waiting on the 60th floor of one of the 88-storey towers, once the world's tallest buildings.

He was detained for a night and his passport impounded while government lawyers decided whether to charge him for trespassing, an offence which carries a fine of 2,000 ringgit (570 dollars) and up to a year in jail.

Robert said last week his lawyers were working on a deal where he would be allowed to go free if he promised not to climb the towers again.

The Frenchman could not be reached Monday.

Robert tried to scale the building a decade ago on March 20, 1997, but was freed without charge after that attempt.

He has been nicknamed "Spiderman" for his high-profile escapades, which have included climbing the Eiffel Tower in Paris and the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.

Copyright AFP

Subject: French news