After 9 months on the run, a French fugitive who staged a deadly escape faced court in Romania

BUCHAREST, Romania — A notorious French fugitive who staged a deadly escape last year appeared in a Romanian court Sunday after a nine-month international police hunt culminated in his arrest in Bucharest.

Mohamed Amra, sporting dyed red hair possibly meant to disguise his identity, flashed a big smile at onlookers as he was escorted by police in and out of the courthouse.

Ten other people in Amra’s entourage were arrested overnight, suspected of participating in the preparation and execution of his escape last year and helping him hide once he was on the run, Paris Prosecutor Laure Beccuau said Sunday.

Two guards were killed when armed assailants helped Amra escape from a prison convoy in Normandy in May. Interpol issued a notice for his arrest.

French investigators alerted counterparts in other countries when they suspected Amra had left France, and Romanian police identified him and arrested him Saturday near a shopping center, the prosecutor said.

Romanian judicial authorities will decide whether to hand him over to French justice.

″Despite the change of his hair color, the identification of the suspect was confirmed using facial recognition and fingerprint comparison,″ the prosecutor said.

Nicknamed ‘’The Fly,'' the 30-year-old Amra fled after being sentenced for burglary in the Normandy town of Evreux. He was also under investigation for an attempted organized homicide and a kidnapping that resulted in death, prosecutors said.

The Paris prosecutor said Amra had connections with Marseille’s organized crime syndicates and was suspected of heading a drug trafficking network.