LISBON, Portugal (AP) — The lawyer for George Wright says the captured American fugitive will claim a new identity to prevent the U.S. from extraditing him.
Lawyer Manuel Luis Ferreira had told The Associated Press that Wright became a Portuguese citizen, called Jose Luis Jorge dos Santos, in 1991 after marrying a Portuguese woman.
Ferreira said in an interview Saturday that Wright’s new identity was given to him by West African country Guinea-Bissau when it granted him political asylum in the 1980s and was accepted by Portugal.
The U.S. is trying to extradite Wright to serve the remainder of his sentence for a 1962 murder in New Jersey.
But Ferreira said his client insists he has the right to serve the time in Portugal because he has Portuguese citizenship based on his new identity.
