UK police arrest wrongly-released asylum seeker jailed for sex assault

LONDON (Reuters) -British officials said on Sunday they had arrested Hadush Kebatu, a migrant sex offender whose offences led to weeks of protests and who was mistakenly released from prison, in north London after a nearly three-day manhunt and would deport him.

Kebatu was sentenced in September to a 12-month term for sexual assaults of a teenage girl and a woman, and was meant to be sent to an immigration detention centre to be deported when he was freed by mistake on Friday.

"This has been a diligent and fast-paced investigation led by specialist officers from the Metropolitan Police, supported by Essex Police and the British Transport Police," Commander James Conway, who oversaw the operation, said in a statement on Sunday.

"Information from the public led officers to Finsbury Park and following a search, they located Mr Kebatu. He was detained by police, but will be returned to the custody of the Prison Service."

Britain's Secretary of State for Justice David Lammy said Kebatu was in police custody and would be deported.

"Kebatu has been arrested, is now in custody and will be deported," Lammy said on X shortly after the arrest.

"I have already ordered the immediate strengthening of release checks and a full investigation into what went wrong."

Prime Minister Keir Starmer said: "We must make sure this doesn't happen again".

The 38-year-old Ethiopian's offences sparked angry summer-long protests outside the hotel where he was living in Essex, east of London, events which helped set off other demonstrations amid rising tensions in Britain over immigration.

(Reporting by Suban Abdulla; Editing by David Holmes, Aidan Lewis)