Murder suspect Jonny Smyth has been extradited to Spain from Portugal following his arrest there last month.
The 27-year-old Northern Ireland man is currently in a remand prison near the border town of Badajoz in Spain’s south-west Extremadura region after being driven across the frontier by police.
A judge there ordered his remand in jail over the weekend ahead of his expected transfer to the Costa Blanca where he is at the centre of an ongoing investigation into the murder of West Belfast dad-of-two John George.
Smyth was detained in Portugal on March 25 on an international arrest warrant after being tracked down to an Airbnb in Braga, a city in the far north of the country.
He is expected to be summoned in the coming days before the Torrevieja-based investigating judge probing Mr George’s murder so his continued detention in Spain can be ratified.
That hearing will take place behind closed doors, like the post-extradition court appearance in Badajoz, as is normal in Spain where only trials take place in public.
A well-placed court official, confirming Smyth was now back on Spanish soil, said on Tuesday afternoon: “The detainee was initially placed after his extradition to Spain at the disposal of the courts of Badajoz, which agreed to place him in provisional detention at the disposal of the Torrevieja court.
“The Torrevieja court is currently awaiting a report on the proceedings carried out in Badajoz in order to decide what is appropriate.”
Mr George, 37, vanished on December 14 last year and relatives reported him missing when he failed to catch a scheduled flight home four days later after what was meant to be a short holiday.
His body was discovered on January 7, hidden under overgrown lemon trees around five miles from the town of Rojales. A man arrested later the same day on suspicion of homicide appeared at court on January 10 after nearly 72 hours in police custody. His Costa Blanca-based defence lawyer Manuel Ramon Rives attributed the decision to detain him to his “recent friendship” with a man he said then police were hunting as the alleged perpetrator.
The police force, which has been very tight-lipped about its investigation and is refusing requests for interviews, said after Smyth’s arrest: “In the framework of Operation Resistente, carried out by the Territorial Judicial Police Team of Pilar de la Horadada for a crime of intentional homicide of an Irish citizen in the municipality of Rojales, we have received information through SIRENE of the arrest on March 25th of a 27-year-old man in the Portuguese city of Braga.
“The arrest was made by the Portuguese police in compliance with a European Arrest Warrant issued by Court of Instruction Number Two in Torrevieja.”
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