Easey St murder suspect Perry Kouroumblis departs Italy for Australia

Prime suspect in the notorious Easey St double murder Perry Kouroumblis is on his way back to Australia after being escorted onto a flight in Rome without handcuffs.

Prime suspect in the notorious Easey St double murder Perry Kouroumblis has boarded a flight back to Australia after spending several months in a Rome jail.

Homicide Squad detectives from Victoria Police along with Italian authorities transferred the 65-year-old from the Italian capital’s Regina Coeli prison to Fiumicino Airport ahead of his scheduled flight back to Australia at about 1am Tuesday (3pm local Rome time).

He was seen being escorted onto the tarmac after being driven to the plane in a back van while surrounded by officers.

Without being placed in handcuffs, Kouroimblis wore a black jumper and light-coloured pants as he boarded the plane before all remaining passengers boarded the flight.

Perry Kouroumblis boarding a flight to Australia. Picture: Erik Messori and Andrea Vagnoni

Kouroumblis boarded the flight at about 1am Tuesday. Picture: Erik Messori and Andrea Vagnoni

Kouroumblis sat in an economy seat and was flanked by three Victorian homicide detectives on his first flight bound for Doha, which landed about 4:30am.

As of Tuesday morning, he was waiting to board a connecting 13-hour flight to Melbourne after a layover in Doha.

It can be revealed that he spent several hours waiting to board the flight out of Rome in a cramped temporary detention cell deep within Fiumicino Airport.

The unfurnished room was completely empty, except for a basic seat built into one of its walls.

Painted a pale grey and lined with tiles on the floor, it also has a window that allowed authorities to supervise Kouroimblis at all times.

After co-ordinating Kouroumblis’ arrest in September, Italian State Police Chief Fernando Speziali told the Herald Sun his journey back to Australia brought to an end a “long and complex extradition process”.

“Australian authorities will accompany him on board and he will be under strict controls from the moment the plane takes off,” Mr Speziali said.

“Our Australian colleagues arrived here on Friday last week and we arranged for them to take over custody (of Kouroumblis).”

Mr Speziali said Doha police were helping to guard Kouroumblis during his transfer to his second flight after his stopover in the region.

Kouroumblis’ journey back to Victoria comes 47 years after the Easey Street murders. Picture: Facebook

Suzanne Armstrong and Susan Bartlett were killed at a property on Easey St in Collingwood in January 1977. Picture: Supplied

Before returning to Australia, Victoria Police’s homicide squad commended Mr Speziali’s help with detaining Kouroumblis after he landed in Rome on a flight from Athens.

The Herald Sun previously revealed a specialist team of five Italian police officers intercepted Kouroumblis at the airport when he landed on September 19 after reportedly being lured into the country for a potential business deal.

His departure from the Greek capital triggered an Interpol notice that alerted the Italian authorities to his arrival.

Detectives then presented an evidence brief to an Italian court before Justice Minister Carlo Nordio officially signed off on Victorian detectives’ request to bring Kouroumblis back to Victoria.

He is expected to land in Melbourne within hours, where he will then face questioning at Victoria Police’s Spencer St headquarters before a murder charge is likely laid.

Kouroumblis’ journey back to Victoria comes 47 years after friends Susan Bartlet and Suzanne Armstrong were stabbed to death inside their Easey St shadehouse in Collingwood on January 10 1977.

Regina Coeli, the Rome prison where Perry Kouroumblis was held.

The Palace of the Court of Appeal Criminal Section where the judge took charge of the extradition order against Perry Kouroumblis.

Aged just 17 years old at the time of the murders, Kouroumblis was questioned by former officer Ron Iddles about a knife Iddles had seized from the boot of his car days after the women’s deaths.

A teenage Kouroumblis told the officer he had found the knife on railway lines nearby.

The case went cold until 2017, when homicide detectives asked Kouroumblis, who was 17 years old at the time of the murders, for a DNA sample.

He then fled to Greece, where he is understood to have been living with one of his brothers.

Due to a 20-year statute of limitations on murder charges in Greece, Australian authorities could not extradite Kouroumblis from there, instead waiting until he left the country to travel to Italy, where he was arrested in September.

He did not contest his extradition and only requested to be able to speak with his brothers while he was detained.

No charges have ever been laid over the brutal double stabbing, and Kouroumblis, while “worried” about returning to Victoria, has maintained his innocence since his arrest.