French inmate on radicalization watch list arrested in Spain

PARIS – Authorities say an inmate on a radicalization watch list who escaped from a prison in western France earlier this month has been arrested in Spain.

The prosecutor’s office in the Brittany city of Brest said Tuesday that 21-year-old Anthony Pondaven was subject to a European arrest warrant.

Basque regional police confirmed Pondaven was detained with another man in the early hours of Tuesday in San Sebastian, a Spanish city located about 12 miles from the French border.

Pondaven had been jailed in a Brest prison for theft, not for terror-related offences. But he’s also on a watch list for religious radicalism. He escaped on May 16 while he was on the way to a hospital for a medical exam.