Murder-accused nabbed in SA extradited to Ireland
Police say they have sent back an international fugitive wanted for murder in Ireland.
Ruth Lawrence and her alleged accomplice and former fiancé, Neville van der Westhuizen, are accused of killing two men in Dublin in 2014.
The victims, Eoin O'Connor and Anthony Keegan, were found shot and buried in a shallow grave.
Lawrence and Van der Westhuizen are believed to have fled to South Africa shortly after the murders.
The 42-year-old Lawrence was arrested by the Hawks in Bloemfontein in October last year.
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Van der Westhuizen (40) was traced to a KwaZulu-Natal prison where he's serving a 15-year-prison sentence for another murder.
Officials say his extradition process is underway in the Durban Magistrate's Court.
National SAPS spokesperson, Mathapelo Peters, says Lawrence was escorted from Bloemfontein to Pretoria and later handed over to Irish police.
They boarded a flight to Ireland on Thursday night.
"The tracing of Lawrence and her extradition come as a result of collaboration between the Garda Siochana, whose team members arrived in South Africa earlier this week, the South African Police Service INTERPOL NCB Pretoria, the Directorate Priority Crime Investigations, and the SAPS Detectives and Crime Intelligence," says Peters.
