A Chilean judge on Friday rejected a request from France to arrest a man suspected of killing a Japanese student in the French city of Besancon. The Chilean teaching assistant, Nicolas Zepeda Contreras, has been identified as the main suspect in the disappearance of his ex-girlfriend, Japanese student Narumi Kurosaki. Kurosaki, 21, disappeared last December in Besancon, where she had been studying French since September.
Investigators believe she was killed, but have still not found her body. Zepeda, 26, was in Besancon the day she disappeared, according to French authorities, who suspect he murdered her and then fled home to Chile. France formally requested his arrest and extradition last month.
But Chilean Supreme Court Judge Jorge Dahm ruled France did not need Zepeda to be arrested in order to pursue his extradition, writing in his decision that "a less intense measure than preventive detention" was appropriate. The judge barred Zepeda from leaving the country for two months. He criticized French investigators for not supplying more evidence against Zepeda, complaining of "the scarce information related to the facts and the suspect's participation in them."
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