Accused Easey Street killer Perry Kouroumblis has given consent to be extradited to Australia and fight the charges, his Italian lawyer says.
The 65-year-old faced a hearing in the criminal branch of the Court of Appeal in Rome on Monday, where he appeared before a judge as part of an extradition process initiated by Victoria Police.
Kouroumblis was arrested last week at Rome’s Fiumicino Airport on an Interpol red notice over the double murder of Suzanne Armstrong and Susan Bartlett at their home in Melbourne in 1977.
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He had been living in Greece, where he couldn’t be arrested because of the statute of limitations, since he left Melbourne in 2017, when he was a person of interest in the case.
His lawyer in Rome, Serena Tucci, told 9News the dual Australian-Greek citizen had travelled to Italy for a work-related reason and was surprised to find out the law was different.
She said he exercised his right to silence when he appeared via videolink on Monday from Rome’s Regina Coeli prison.
“He gave consent for extradition to return in Australia, to be returned in Australia, to have the process in Australia,” she said.
“Perry proclaimed himself innocent during the interrogation.”
It now falls to the Italian minister of justice to work with Victorian authorities to handle the extradition application within 45 days, according to Tucci.
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She expected the process to go quickly, without further court hearings, due to Kouroumblis’ consent, and described him as “well”.
Armstrong and Bartlett, 27 and 28, were found dead in their homes on Easey Street in Collingwood on January 13, 1977.
They had both been stabbed several times and Armstrong had been raped.
In the week after their discovery, police found Kouroumblis with a knife. He was considered a person of interest but never charged.
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In a reinvestigation into the crime, he agreed to provide DNA, but then fled to Greece.
Armstrong and Bartlett had last been seen alive on January 10, 1977.
Armstrong’s 16-month-old baby was found alive and unharmed in his cot when police found the women’s bodies.
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