LISBON, Portugal?? A Lisbon court has denied a U.S. request for the extradition of captured American fugitive George Wright, Portuguese news agency Lusa reported Thursday.
The U.S. wants Wright returned to serve the rest of his 15- to 30-year jail sentence for a 1962 killing in New Jersey. Wright was captured in Portugal in September after more than four decades on the run.
Lusa did not provide a source for its report nor did it provide details. Neither court officials nor Wright's lawyer could not immediately be reached for comment.
Wright, 68, is under house arrest at his home near Lisbon, wearing an electronic tag that monitors his movements. Wright spent seven years in a U.S. prison for the 1962 murder before escaping in 1970, and was on the run for 41 years until his arrest. Wright had initially been held in a Lisbon jail since he was caught.
His lawyer Manuel Luis Ferreira previously told The AP he would argue Wright is now a Portuguese citizen and should be allowed to serve the remainder of his sentence in Portugal, where his wife and two grown children live.
Wright was captured in the seaside village where he has lived since 1993 after authorities matched his fingerprint on a Portuguese identity card to one in the U.S.
Wright got Portuguese citizenship through marriage in 1991 after Guinea-Bissau, a former Portuguese colony in West Africa, gave him the new name of "Jose Luis Jorge dos Santos" and made him a citizen.
The identity from Guinea-Bissau was granted after the country gave Wright political asylum in the 1980s, and that was accepted by Portugal when it granted him citizenship, according to his lawyer.
Wright broke out of Bayside State Prison in Leesburg, N.J., on Aug. 19, 1970.
In 1972, Wright ? dressed as a priest and using an alias ? hijacked a Delta flight from Detroit to Miami along with others, police say.
After releasing the plane's 86 other passengers for a $1 million ransom, the hijackers forced the plane to fly to Boston, then to Algeria, where the hijackers sought asylum.
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Wright's lawyer, Manuel Luis Ferreira, contends that Wright is now a Portuguese citizen and should be allowed to serve the remainder of his sentence in Portugal, where his wife and two grown children live.
"At the heart of my argument is that he's Portuguese and he has a Portuguese family," Ferreira said last month.
Wright became a Portuguese citizen called Jose Luis Jorge dos Santos in 1991 after marrying a Portuguese woman, Ferreira said.
Story: For decades, NJ fugitive enjoyed idyllic life in PortugalWright's new identity was given to him by the West African nation of Guinea-Bissau, a former Portuguese colony, when it granted Wright political asylum in the 1980s and that was accepted by Portugal, according to the lawyer.
Ferreira said the case touches on many issues, "such as the penal code, constitutional rights and the (international) convention on human rights."
He said he couldn't reveal more details due to confidentiality laws governing court cases in Portugal.
The decision can be appealed to higher courts, and the entire process could take months or longer.
Wright broke out of Bayside State Prison in Leesburg, New Jersey, on Aug. 19, 1970. He was also part of a Black Liberation Army group that hijacked a U.S. plane to Algeria in 1972, the FBI says.
The rest of the group was arrested in France, but Wright made his way to Portugal, and met Valente in the late 1970s in Portugal. The two later moved to the tiny West African nation of Guinea-Bissau, a former Portuguese colony, where the country's then-Marxist leaders granted him asylum and a new identity.
Wright's wife, Maria do Rosario Valente, said last month that her husband is a changed man who "regrets the choices he has made. If he could, he probably would have made different choices."
Wright, tall and slim with his head shaved bald, did not participate in the interview because of Portuguese court restrictions that prevent him from talking about the case. After it was over, he kissed her and made small talk about matters unrelated to his legal battle.??
Wright, 68, was convicted of the murder of Walter Patterson in Wall Township, N.J. He escaped from the Bayside State Prison in Leesburg, New Jersey, in 1970 after serving more than seven years.
Wright lived openly using his real name in Guinea-Bissau and even socialized with American diplomats, but one former ambassador who served in the country while Wright was there and other U.S. diplomats who knew Wright have told the AP they did not know about his past.
His wife worked for years as a freelance translator for the U.S. embassy in the country's capital, Bissau, and Wright was a logistics coordinator for a Belgian nonprofit development group until the couple moved back to Portugal in 1993.
Valente said her husband has become a more peaceful man since his days as a militant. She showed the AP photographs of paintings by Wright and art work at local buildings ? a skill which has allowed him to earn money in Portugal among other odd jobs he's done over the years.
Ann Patterson, daughter of the man killed in New Jersey, said last month she still wants him returned to serve his sentence.
"Our world has been turned upside down," said Patterson, 63. "We've now had to grieve for our father for the second time when we never should have had to the first time."
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45339133/ns/world_news-europe/
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