The British trickster inspired cinema.

The hero of "The Puppetmaster: lessons in manipulation" and "Rogue Agent" has been incarcerated in Belgium for two weeks.

He is contesting his surrender to the French courts, which are claiming him for attempted murder of two gendarmes, we learned on Monday from the Belgian prosecutor's office in Hal-Vilvoorde.

Robert Hendy-Freegard "appealed the decision" of the Brussels council chamber which ordered his surrender to France on September 15, said a spokesperson for the prosecution.

He must now appear before the indictment chamber of the Brussels Court of Appeal, she added.

No date has been specified.

Suspected of having knocked down two gendarmes

This 51-year-old Briton, arrested on September 2 on a Belgian highway thanks to a video surveillance device that made it possible to locate his vehicle, is the target of a European arrest warrant issued by French justice.

He is suspected of having deliberately knocked down two French gendarmes with his car in Creuse (center) before fleeing.

The altercation occurred on August 25 in the town of Vidaillat during an inspection of the dog farm operated by Robert Hendy-Freegard.

When the gendarmes asked him to go to the nearest brigade, the suspect started his vehicle, an Audi A3, then hit the soldiers.

Sentenced in 2005 to life imprisonment

One of the gendarmes suffers from an open fracture at the level of the nose.

They were prescribed 21 and six days of incapacity for work.

Well known in Great Britain, Robert Hendy-Freegard is the central subject of the documentary "The Puppetmaster: lessons in manipulation" and the fiction film "Rogue Agent", both broadcast on the Netflix platform.

In 2005, he was sentenced in his country to life imprisonment for kidnapping, deception, theft from students and women, from whom he had extracted more than a million pounds, in particular by posing as a spy for the MI5, the British internal intelligence service.

He was released in 2009 after his conviction for kidnapping was overturned by an appeals court.

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Gendarmes injured in the Creuse: Robert Hendy-Freegard arrested in Belgium

Miscellaneous facts

Gendarmes injured in the Creuse: Robert Hendy-Freegard still on the run, investigation opened for "attempted homicide"

  • netflix

  • Britain

  • Assassination attempt

  • Gendarmerie

  • Justice