Serial rapist Benny Sela, whose escape from a Tel Aviv courthouse two weeks ago triggered a nationwide manhunt, was arrested in northern Israel on Friday night.

After his arrest, Sela told reporters that he ran away from prison after suffering abuse and having been stabbed by other inmates, while jailers ignored his calls for help, Army Radio reported. Sela also complained he was beaten up by police after his arrest.

The Israel Prison Service and police dismissed the allegations.

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Sela, 35, escaped his two-man police escort at Tel Aviv Magistrate's Court six years into a 35-year jail sentence handed down in December 1999 for the rape and sexual assault of 14 women. He scaled the high wall surrounding the courtyard where prisoners awaiting a hearing are placed, jumped over it and disappeared.

Predawn Saturday, the serial rapist was transported to an isolated cell at Rimonim Prison in the Sharon area, Army Radio reported. He was placed in solitary confinement next door to the killer of prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, Yigal Amir.

Sela was questioned by Tel Aviv police overnight, as detectives sought to learn whether he had received any assistance while on the run. Police questioned Sela on suspicions of fleeing legal custody, breaking into an apartment, theft and assaulting police officers.

Sela received medical treatment upon entering Rimonim prison, and was said to have been tired, hungry and not carrying any belongings, the radio reported. He reportedly remained silent throughout his interrogation.

He will not be brought before a court for an extension of his remand, but the indictment for the fresh allegations will be submitted as he continues to serve his original sentence.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert congratulated Public Security Minister Avi Dichter and Police Commissioner Moshe Karadi for Sela's capture, the radio said.

The capture came after police received a report from one of Sela's relatives who said that the fugitive prisoner had contacted him and told him he would be heading north. The family member also gave police a description of the car in which he was traveling. The relative is a resident of Nesher, near the northern port city of Haifa.

Following the report, police set up roadblocks on main roads in the north. When police stopped the car Sela was driving on the Nahariya-Acre road, he again tried to escape. Police officers ran after him, and eventually captured him. A senior police officer said that Sela, dressed in black sweatpants and a gray shirt, was driving a white Honda that had been stolen Friday morning in Hadera.

Sela was taken to a Nahariya police station for questioning, but refused to speak to or cooperate with the police. His fingerprints were sent to a Tel Aviv police station to officially confirm his identity.

According to reports, Sela initially identified himself with an Arab name, but the officers immediately recognized him. Police officers at the scene said that he seemed to be very frightened.

Police Commissioner Moshe Karadi said Friday after arriving at the Nahariya police station that "over the past two days police received information indicating Sela is in the northern district and that is why many uniformed and undercover police were deployed across the district."

Karadi said that "in the afternoon a report came in about a stolen Honda, which according to suspicion Sela was driving." According to the commissioner, "at around 18.30 Galilee District Police were ordered to deploy checkpoints across the region, and among other places roadblocks were set up on the Acre-Nahariya highway."