Johannesburg - The alleged killer of strip king Lolly Jackson is set to be extradited to South Africa after years of appeal bids came to an end on Thursday.
The Cypriot Supreme Court denied Louca’s final attempt to appeal against his extradition.
Had he succeeded, he would have been released from prison - he has been held at Nicosia Central Prison since his 2012 arrest - and his extradition order repealed.
Louca was implicated in the death of Jackson, who was shot dead at a house in Edenglen near OR Tambo International Airport in May 2010. Louca fled to Cyprus shortly after Jackson’s murder, and returned to his hometown of Limassol, a small city in the Greek half of Cyprus.
In June 2012, Louca was ordered back to South Africa to face criminal charges. At that stage, Louca, through his lawyer, Sofronios Sofroniou, immediately brought a habeas corpus application (an application for a prisoner to be released from unlawful detention) in the Supreme Court in Cyprus.
Sofroniou argued that Louca’s detention was unlawful because some of the charges dated back six years, and the chance of a fair trial was unlikely. It was also argued that if Louca was extradited, his life would be in danger because of the local underworld. But after more than a year of arguments, on Thursday Louca had exhausted all of his options and was finally ordered back to South Africa.
The Star