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Police recapture escaped Israeli serial rapist Sela

"I hope his days as a free man are over."

Avi Dichter, Israeli public security minister

Israeli police captured an escaped serial rapist in northern Israel on Friday night, ending a two-week saga that captivated the country's attention, humiliated police and caused nationwide panic.

Benny Sela, who was serving a 35-year sentence for 16 sexual offenses, most of them rapes, bolted from police custody on Nov. 24 as he was being led to a Tel Aviv courthouse.

manhunt

The police came under intense criticism for the debacle, and the ensuing massive manhunt riveted the country.

Israeli Police Chief Moshe Karadi told Israel's Channel 1 TV on Friday that Sela, a known master of disguises, was captured in the northern coastal city of Nahariya.

Israeli media reported that police, acting on a tip from Sela's relatives, caught him driving a stolen vehicle. Once he was apprehended, Sela, 35, pretended to be an Arab.

uncooperative

Even after police positively identified him, Sela refused to cooperate. Israeli TV stations showed images of a dejected Sela in police custody, staring at the floor and ignoring interrogators' questions.

Late Friday, police hustled him through a crowd of journalists into the back of a police car and took him to an undisclosed location.

The arrest capped a dramatic two-week manhunt in which thousands of police officers scoured every corner of the country, posting huge billboards bearing Sela's image on buses and streetposts and begging for the public's assistance.

Recent pictures of Sela -- thin, unshaven and with thick black hair -- along with images of him in various disguises he had used in the past accompanied pages of stories about the hunt in major newspapers.

jailed

Sela was jailed in 1999 after eluding police for several years by changing his appearance and identity.

Police received dozens of alleged sightings throughout the country, and the streets of Tel Aviv, where Sela had targeted most of his victims, were said to be emptier than usual because women were afraid to leave their homes.

The ability of Israel's most notorious sex criminal to elude authorities for so long further humiliated the police.

fiasco

Public Security Minister Avi Dichter called the initial escape a "fiasco" and ordered an independent investigation, which issued a scathing report on Thursday.

"I hope his days as a free man are over," Dichter declared after Friday's arrest.

Sela escaped from two police officers in the parking lot of a Tel Aviv courthouse. After entering the building with the officers, Sela told them he forgot something in the car and headed back to the lot with one of the police. Then, he suddenly raced away, climbing over a wall and escaping to the streets of Tel Aviv.

The search dominated newscasts, bumping even Israel's ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip as the top story in the country.
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