NJ Judge: Man Must Return to Portugal For Sentence

A man detained in New Jersey last year has been ordered to return to Portugal to face a prison sentence for plotting to kill his ex-wife.

A federal judge in Newark ruled Thursday that Manuel Soares must be extradited to Portugal.

Soares had fought extradition on the grounds that his sentence was unjust. A trial court had acquitted him in 2007, but Portugal's Supreme Court of Justice reversed the acquittal and sentenced him to four years and six months in prison.

By the time Portuguese authorities issued a warrant for his arrest in 2009, Soares was in the U.S. Last year, he was pulled over on the New Jersey Turnpike and the warrant was discovered.

Soares says he didn't try to kill his ex-wife.

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)