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A rape suspect accused of faking his own death to evade American authorities on a series of sex charges can be extradited to the U.S., a Scottish court ruled Wednesday.
Nicholas Rossi, 35, claims in a bizarre story that he was detained in the U.K. in 2021 in a case of mistaken identity, and that he’s actually an Irish orphan named Arthur Knight. A separate Scottish court ruling in November dismissed his story after his tattoos and fingerprints were found to match records held by the U.K.’s National Crime Agency.
Sheriff Norman McFadyen—a local judge in Edinburgh—ruled that Rossi could be legally extradited to the U.S., but that the ultimate decision now rests with Scottish ministers. The ruling could be the end of a baffling series of hearings in Scotland lasting over 18 months in which Rossi has pushed his narrative of an innocent man being made the victim of an international conspiracy.