05 October 2023 , 08:54
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Rape suspect Nicholas Rossi who was accused of faking his own death and claims to be someone else can be hauled back to the US, the Scottish government has confirmed.
Rossi is wanted by authorities in Utah for allegedly raping a woman in 2008 and faces multiple complaints against him in Rhode Island for alleged domestic violence. A court ruled in August there was no impediment to the 35-year-old being extradited and the decision was then placed before Scottish ministers. The Scottish Government confirmed under Freedom of Information legislation on Thursday his extradition order was signed on September 28.
Despite a court ruling last November that he is Rossi, he insists it is a case of mistaken identity and that he is an Irish orphan called Arthur Knight. He was arrested while receiving treatment for Covid-19 at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow in December 2021, where he was served an Interpol red notice.
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Judge Norman McFadyen of Edinburgh Sheriff Court had previously dismissed the fugitive’s claims of mistaken identity as “implausible” (PA)Judge Norman McFadyen of Edinburgh Sheriff Court had previously dismissed the fugitive’s claims of mistaken identity as “implausible” and “fanciful” after the man said he had been framed by authorities who tattooed him and surreptitiously took his fingerprints while he was in a coma so they could connect him to Rossi. “I conclude that he is as dishonest and deceitful as he is evasive and manipulative,” McFadyen said. “These unfortunate facets of his character have undoubtedly complicated and extended what is ultimately a straightforward case.” McFadyen said Rossi had presented unreliable evidence and he was not “prepared to accept any statement of fact made by him unless it was independently supported.”
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US authorities said Rossi is one of several aliases the 36-year-old has used and that his legal name is Nicholas Alahverdian, who faces a 2008 rape charge in Utah. Alahverdian is charged with sexually assaulting a former girlfriend in Orem, Utah, according to the Utah County prosecutor’s office. The office said it found complaints alleging Alahverdian abused and threatened women in other states.
He has been fighting extradition to the US (PA)Authorities in Rhode Island have said Alahverdian is wanted there for failing to register as a sex offender, though his former lawyer there, Jeffrey Pine, said the charge was dropped when he left the state. The FBI has said he also faces fraud charges in Ohio, where he was convicted of sex-related charges in 2008.
Alahverdian, who grew up in Rhode Island, was an outspoken critic of the state’s Department of Children, Youth and Families. He testified before state lawmakers that he was sexually abused and tortured in temporary shelters by employees and clients and eventually shipped out of state to facilities for troubled youths. Three years ago, he told media in Rhode Island he had late-stage non-Hodgkin lymphoma and had weeks to live. An obituary published online claimed he died February 29, 2020. About a year later, Rhode Island state police, along with Alahverdian’s former lawyer and his former foster family, cast doubt on whether he had died.