Five inmates escaped from the Turnhout prison by climbing over the wall and escaping in a getaway car on 19 December. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

Management of Turnhout prison received on Monday a “Greetings from Thailand” letter believed to have been sent from Oualid Sekkaki, one of the five detainees who escaped from the Flemish prison in mid-December.

“The letter was addressed to the three directors. In the envelope was his prison badge and a postcard with [the words] ‘Greetings from Thailand,'” a prison guard told HLN.

Along with four other inmates, Sekkaki escaped from Turnhout prison on Thursday 19 December. They made their getaway by climbing over the prison wall and escaping in a getaway car that was waiting for them in the street adjacent to the prison.

Three of the escapees were recaptured in the neighbourhood the following evening. The fourth man, identified at the time as Abderrahim Baghat (38), was recaptured by police in Nijmegen in the Netherlands earlier this month.

Monday’s letter is the first sign of Oualid Sekkaki since his escape. The management of the prison immediately informed the police.

Oualid Sekkaki is the brother of the well-known ‘escape king’ Ashraf Sekkaki, who escaped from Turnhout prison in 2003 and Bruges prison ten years ago, using a hijacked helicopter. Ashraf is currently in prison in Morocco, VRT explains.

Evie McCullough

The Brussels Times