AN AMERICAN doctor who fled to Cyprus after he was accused of killing his wife with cyanide was yesterday extradited to the United States to stand trial.
Dr Yazeed Essa was transported from Nicosia’s Central Prisons to Larnaca airport just after midnight. There he was met by three US Federal agents who arrived on the island from Frankfurt to escort the prisoner back to Cleveland, Ohio.
The father of two was arrested at Larnaca airport in October 2006 when he attempted to clear customs using false documents after arriving from Lebanon. During the forgery investigation, authorities discovered though Interpol an outstanding arrest warrant for Essa. He faces charges of aggravated murder of his wife Rosemarie in February 2005.
Over the past two years, the former Accident and Emergency physician at Akron General Hospital was kept in the Central Prisons’ closed prison while he fought his extradition to Cuyahoga County.
It is thought a plea bargain was made with Essa that involved dropping charges against his brother and sister in exchange for his return to Cleveland. Prosecutors suspect Firas Essa of Hudson and Runa Ighneim of Chester Township took money from companies they owned in order to help their 40-year-old brother while he was on the run.
Judge Daniel Gaul said the pair would be placed on probation instead of sentenced to prison if Essa returned to face prosecution. If not, Firas Essa could face up to 11 and a half years in prison and his sister could face nine months.
But conflicting reports said no such agreement exists and that the siblings’ cases are still pending in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court. Their plea and sentencing is said to be “completely independent of Yazeed’s return”.
The siblings are expected to be sentenced on January 26.
US prosecutors believe the real reason Essa decided to stop fighting his extradition was because he “was at the end of his rope on appeals. He took it as far as he could go”.
Essa had initially appealed on the grounds that he could face the death penalty if returned to the United States and convicted. Cyprus will not extradite anyone who faces a possible death sentence.
Although Ohio prosecutors sent sworn affidavits assuring the death penalty would not be sought, Essa’s defence lawyers argued that the charge could be amended to one that carried the death penalty once the doctor was back home.
But Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason Mason has said Essa is not eligible for the death penalty under Ohio law. Such a sentence is reserved for those convicted of aggravated murder with certain specifications, such as killing a child, a witness or a police officer. Prosecutors also can seek it against someone who killed someone while committing certain felonies or attempting to escape after a crime.
The maximum sentence that Essa faces is life in prison, with the chance of parole after at least 20 years.
Rosemarie Essa died on February 24, 2005 after losing control of her vehicle and colliding into an oncoming car just several kilometres from her home. She later died in hospital.
During their investigation authorities learned that the former nurse, who had been married to Essa for five years, telephoned a friend, claiming to feel unwell after her husband made her take some pills.
A forensic analysis of what Essa later claimed were calcium tablets determined they had been laced with cyanide and the country coroner’s office ruled her death was due to murder by poison.
Essa subsequently disappeared in March 2005 after leaving the couple’s two young children with Rosemarie’s brother. Prior to his arrest at Larnaca airport he had been sighted in Toronto, London, Greece, Syria and Lebanon, Miami, Florida, Detroit and Michigan.
