The now 19-year-old, known by the media as Carlos, was arrested on Tuesday afternoon in the Langstrasse area of Zurich for threatening behaviour, city police said on Friday, confirming a report in the Blick newspaper.
According to Blick, police responded to an altercation in which Carlos was threatening another person, though the exact details of his arrest are not yet known.
“The background of the allegations are the subject of ongoing investigations,” said Corinne Bouvard, spokesperson for the public prosecutor.
Carlos, who has a history of violent offences including robbery, weapons possession, drug use, threats and assaults, first came to the public’s attention when he was the subject of public affairs show ‘Reporter’ on SRF.
The programme revealed Carlos was undergoing a therapy programme which allowed him to live in a four-room apartment at a reported cost of 29,000 francs a month.
Media subsequently reported that the canton of Zurich had spent 960,000 francs on Carlos and his 10-strong team, which included a social worker, lawyer and Thai boxing coach.
His therapy programme followed several stints in juvenile detention and treatment in a psychiatric hospital which had reportedly failed to rehabilitate him.
The public outrage surrounding his therapy led to it being cancelled, and Carlos was sent to a closed unit instead.
However in February this year this decision was overturned by the Federal Court, which ordered the Zurich authorities to find an alternative.
A second therapy programme costing 19,000 francs a month finally came to an end in September after it was found to have “no educational effect”, reported Blick.
Carlos has since lived with his father in emergency accommodation in Zurich.
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