A Korean-American who fled to South Korea a decade ago will be extradited to the United States to face charges of murdering a former policeman, according to a court verdict released Friday.
The 31-year-old man, who has been identified only as Nam, was arrested in Pennsylvania in 1996 for allegedly shooting the man during a burglary. After being released on bail, he fled to South Korea in 1998.
In March 1999 he turned himself in to police and asked to be tried in Korea, but authorities released him because Seoul at the time did not have an extradition treaty with Washington.
Since then Nam had stayed in Korea teaching English in private institutes.
Police arrested him in March after Seoul received a request from Washington to extradite him.
The Seoul High Court dismissed Nam's request to be tried in Korea, according to the verdict quoted by Yonhap news agency.
"Considering that (the suspect) who has dual citizenship committed a serious crime and was indicted in the United States, all documentary evidence and witnesses are in the United States and that he has fled to this country, there is no reason to reject the request to extradite him," it said.
The suspect claimed that the US judiciary may sentence him to death, citing what he called racial discrimination there and the fact that the victim was white, according to Yonhap.
