The Harju County Court in Tallinn on Friday ruled in favor of the extradition to the UK of an Estonian national accused of killing a Frenchwoman in London at the beginning of this month.
Court decides to extradite Estonian citizen accused of Frenchwoman's murder to UK
The suspect, Kirill Belorusov, aged 32, was detained in Tallinn on Wednesday. The man has been living in London and working as a barman there for years and the victim was his ex-girlfriend.
Aare Pere, assistant prosecutor at the North District Prosecutor's Office, said in court that the legal grounds necessary for extradition exist. The same was opined by the defense lawyer for the suspect, Nadezda Kikkas.
The suspect asked court to be transferred to London as quickly as possible. BNS has learned that he does not admit to having committed the crime and wishes the investigation to prove his innocence as quickly as possible.
The corpse of Laureline Garcia-Bertaux, 34, who reportedly worked as a film producer, was discovered in a shallow grave her back garden in southwest London on March 6. A post-mortem examination found she had been strangled.
London murder detectives worked with Europol to trace and detain the suspect. He was held in the Estonian capital on a European Arrest Warrant, London's Metropolitan Police said on Wednesday.
Garcia-Bertaux was reported missing after she did not arrive for work on March 5. She worked as an executive assistant for the public relations firm Golin.