US citizen suspected of murder extradited to South Korea

A US citizen suspected of murdering a South Korean college student 18 years ago, was extradited to South Korea on Wednesday.

Arthur Patterson, 36, arrived in Seoul at 4.26 a.m. (local time). He was accused of stabbing the student multiple times to death, Xinhua news agency reported.

In April 1997, the South Korean student, aged 22 at the time, was found dead in the toilet of a restaurant in the Itaewon district, Seoul.

Patterson and his Korean-American friend Edward Lee were at the site of the murder. South Korean prosecutors accused Lee of murder at the time, but Lee was acquitted by the court in September 1998.

Patterson fled Seoul to the US in August 1999 when prosecutors failed to extend his foreign travel ban.

Amid growing public anger, South Korea's justice ministry called for the US authorities to extradite Patterson to the country.

Patterson was arrested in May 2011 by the US investigation authorities, and the US prosecutors indicted him for homicide in December 2011.

In October 2012, a US court permitted his extradition to South Korea, but Patterson delayed the extradition with habeas corpus petitions.

The US citizen finally lost the petition, and was extradited to Seoul.