It could be years before the person arrested over the discovery of children's remains in suitcases in Auckland faces justice in New Zealand.
On Thursday, a 42-year-old woman was arrested by police in South Korea in relation to the deaths of two children who were found in suitcases unwittingly purchased at a storage unit auction in Auckland.
A formal request has been issued for her extradition back to Aotearoa to face charges. Local media reports a decision has to be made by the courts within two months.
But Law Aid international director Craig Tuck said there was no telling how long the process would actually take.
"It could take years… it could be very quick but it could also go through a very long long, drawn-out appeal process with various applications and all sorts of substantive and procedural grounds deployed to delay any accused person's return to New Zealand," Tuck told AM.
"Even… fast-tracked processes can take years when they go through the judicial review and appeal process."
The 42-year-old Korean-born New Zealand woman was accused of fleeing to South Korea in 2018 after allegedly killing her then 7 and 10-year-old children in Auckland.
She was arrested after global police agency Interpol issued a red notice. The woman has denied the murder allegations.
"I did not do it," she told reporters as she was escorted from a police station in the South Korean city of Ulsan.
Formal extradition was subsequently sought by the New Zealand Police - which had to be done within 45 days for a South Korean court to consider whether or not she should be sent back.
Tuck told AM host Ryan Bridge South Korean authorities would be considering if there were any reasons she shouldn't be removed to New Zealand to face trial.
"It's certainly part of that humanitarian framework that citizens of a country are dealt with fairly and that all the information is on the table before a decision is made to return that person to New Zealand," he said.
Police in New Zealand launched a homicide probe in Auckland last month after the remains of the children were found, and the arrest was a announced on Thursday.
The family who found the bodies were not connected to the deaths.
