Lisbon court places US fugitive under house arrest

[The Northerner]

LISBON, Portugal (AP) — A court has allowed captured American fugitive George Wright to leave jail and stay at his Portuguese home while he fights extradition to the U.S., his lawyer said on Friday.

A judge hearing the case released Wright from custody on condition he remains at his house near Lisbon and wears an electronic tag that monitors his movements, lawyer Manuel Luis Ferreira said.

Wright spent seven years in a U.S. prison for a 1962 murder in New Jersey before escaping in 1970, and was on the run for 41 years until his arrest in Portugal almost three weeks ago. Wright had been held in a Lisbon jail since he was caught.

"He can't leave the house and he can't speak about the case to anyone," Ferreira told The Associated Press.

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