ANKARA

South Korea extradited a woman believed to be the mother of two children whose bodies were found in suitcases in New Zealand earlier this year, local media reported on Tuesday.

The 42-year-old woman was handed over to New Zealand’s authorities on Monday evening at Incheon International Airport, along with evidence seized by police, Yonhap News Agency cited the country's Justice Ministry officials as saying.

The woman, arrested in September this year by the South Korean authorities from an apartment in Ulsan, southeast of the capital Seoul, was the key suspect in the deaths of her two children.

The New Zealand government requested South Korea for the arrest after police found the remains of two children on Aug. 11 in suitcases and believed both of them had been killed in 2018 at ages 7 and 10.

The South Korean-born woman, who was also a national of New Zealand, reportedly returned to her home country after her husband died of a disease.

However, following arrest, she denied her involvement in the murder and said: “I didn't do it.”

*Writing by Islamuddin Sajid