Chilean authorities are likely to hand over to France in early July a man suspected of killing a female Japanese student in response to an extradition request from French prosecutors, a document from Chilean prosecutors and other sources showed Monday.
Four French police officials are expected to arrive in Santiago on around July 7 to extradite Nicolas Zepeda Contreras, according to the document submitted to the Chilean top court. Zepeda, 29, is suspected of killing Narumi Kurosaki, a student from the University of Tsukuba in Ibaraki Prefecture, in France in 2016.
The whereabouts of Kurosaki have been unknown since she dined with Zepeda and returned with him to the dorm of her university in Besancon, eastern France, on Dec. 4 of that year. She was 21 years old at the time.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, Zepeda will need to be quarantined for two weeks before his departure to France. Chilean prosecutors have requested that a court place him under house arrest until Wednesday to that end.
Zepeda returned to his native Chile shortly after Kurosaki went missing. Kurosaki's body has not been found and Zepeda has denied killing her.
