Suspects Of The Murder Of Children's Body In Extradition Sores From South Korea To New Zealand

Illustration. (Pixabay/4711018)

JAKARTA - A 42-year-old woman who allegedly killed her two children and then put them in a suitcase has been extradited to New Zealand.

South Korea's Ministry of Justice said the woman surnamed Lee and was a New Zealand citizen of Korean descent. she was handed over along with evidence to New Zealand authorities the day before at Incheon International Airport.

The woman was in the spotlight in August, after a family in Auckland found the body of a 10-year-old girl and a seven-year-old boy in two suitcases they bought from an online auction. Police believe that the corpse has been stored there for several years.

It was the first request for extradition South Korea received from New Zealand, the ministry said.

"We hope that the truth of this case is revealed through a fair and strict judicial process in New Zealand," the ministry said in a statement.

"The extradition process takes a long time in many cases. But this particular case only takes three months. This is a good precedent, for efficient international cooperation in criminal investigations," the ministry continued.

The woman was arrested in September in the southern port city of Ulsan, where she lives in her friend's apartment. He denied the allegations.

Lee migrated to New Zealand where he acquired citizenship and later married a man, who is known to have two children. Her husband reportedly died of cancer in 2017.

After his arrest, Oh Yoon-sung, a professor at the police administration department at Soonchunhyang University, told Hankook Il-bo Lee may have come under enormous pressure after losing her husband. The following year, he returned to Korea alone and lived in southern Seoul until recently.

South Korea signed extradition agreements with nearly 80 countries, including New Zealand in 2002. But the process for this case is very fast.

Given that a country has no obligation to hand over suspected criminals to other parties for various reasons, including the suspect's claim to political persecution or possible human rights abuses, it will take years to resolve them in many cases.

After reviewing the case, Justice Minister Han Dong-hoon said his party decided to extradite it on the grounds that the suspect and victim were all New Zealand citizens (Therefore, the case is outside the jurisdiction of the Korean government).