Russia captures jailbreak prisoner after 2 days on run

Russian police on Wednesday captured a prisoner charged with double murder whose daring escape from a formidable Moscow prison after apparently using a spoon to prise open his cell ceiling led to a massive two-day manhunt.

Police captured Oleg Topalov, 33, in Izmailovsky park in northeastern Moscow, the city prison service said. He was limping after apparently hurting his leg in the escape, a police spokesman told Channel One television.

Topalov escaped from his cell in Moscow’s Matrosskaya Tishina jail early Tuesday by making a hole in the ceiling, possibly using his prison-issue spoon, and then crawling through a ventilation shaft onto the roof.

From there he managed to scale the prison fence using sheets tied together, officials said.

The police and prison authorities released his photograph and description in an intensive search that included the use of sniffer dogs.

The police officers who found him using an Alsatian dog will each receive a reward of 100,000 rubles ($3,217), Izvestia daily reported.

The head of the police dog service, Alexander Pastushkov, told Channel One television that police found a diary in Topalov’s bag where he had written: “Finally I’ve managed to escape, finally I’m free!”

Topalov was set to go on trial shortly on charges of murdering two people and arms trafficking after spending a year and a half on remand.

He faces up to an extra four years in jail for the escape, which RIA Novosti state news agency said was only the fourth in two decades from the closely guarded Matrosskaya Tishina prison.

Investigators also launched a criminal probe into negligence by prison guards.

Opened in 1946, Matrosskaya Tishina has held defendants in notorious trials including ex-oil magnate Mikhail Khodorkovsky.