Fugitive Suspect in French Attempted Murder Case Arrested in Morocco

Sahbi E. had been actively sought since March 8, 2023 for having fled his trial for attempted murder in Besançon. The young man had been sentenced to seven years in prison for having mistakenly fired five bullets at a thirty-year-old man in 2020 in the Planoise district, while he was targeting a drug dealer with whom he had a dispute, the Besançon prosecutor’s office informed.

Since his escape, the defendant "has not ceased to commit misdeeds," said Étienne Manteaux, the Besançon prosecutor, to the press. Sahbi E. is suspected of having participated in June 2023 in shootouts in Planoise and in acts of violence in front of a nightclub near Besançon in November of the same year.

The 26-year-old man is also suspected of having killed with a stray bullet a 55-year-old father near a drug dealing point in Dijon, on the night of November 25 to 26, 2023. His fingerprints had been found in one of the vehicles used by his four alleged accomplices and himself to commit this crime. The latter have been indicted, but Sahbi remained untraceable.

The fugitive was finally apprehended on Friday in Marrakech and an extradition procedure is underway, Olivier Caracotch, the Dijon prosecutor, informed.