Naples: One of the prisoners who escaped from Poggioreale has been captured.

Escape from Poggioreale: One of the two escapees captured

The escape of one of the two inmates who escaped from Poggioreale prison during the night lasted just hours. The capture was confirmed by OSAPP Secretary General Leo Beneduci.

The two men, 32-year-old Algerian Souki Mahrez and 23-year-old Syrian Kazem Mohmed Elokla, managed to escape by drilling a hole in the prison wall and lowering themselves outside with the help of a rope.

Law enforcement remains vigorous in their search for the second fugitive still at large.

Poggioreale, the first escape, after over a century, occurred in August 2019

The first escape from Poggioreale prison, which occurred in a century, also dates back to August. It was August 25, 2019, when Robert Lisowski, a 32-year-old Polish citizen arrested a few months earlier for murder, managed to escape from the Naples prison.

Lisowski, considered a dangerous prisoner, was captured by the Naples Flying Squad on December 5, 2018, accused of killing a 36-year-old Ukrainian compatriot, a friend with whom he had had an argument in a club frequented by Eastern Europeans near the Spanish Quarter.

The escape, a sensational one for a prison that hadn't recorded any escapes in a century, lasted just twenty-four hours. On August 26th, the State Police tracked him down a short distance from the prison. He was limping and in pain: while climbing down the perimeter wall, with a makeshift rope made of sheets, he had fractured his leg, slowing his progress toward freedom.

A lightning escape, one that has remained etched in Poggioreale's recent history as the first—and only—successful one in a hundred years.