A 42-year-old woman accused of the murder of her two young children - whose bodies were found in suitcases - has pleaded not guilty.
By Logan Church and Corazon Miller
The woman, who was extradited back to New Zealand from South Korea last month, did not make an appearance today.
However, through her lawyer at the High Court in Auckland this morning, she entered not guilty pleas to two charges of murder.
Justice Sally Fitzgerald ordered interim name suppression to continue until a hearing next year.
The defendant had appeared in the Manukau District Court on November 30 - just one day after arriving in the country, where Judge Gus Andrée Wiltens ruled her identity, and that of her two school-aged children remain suppressed.
Police had launched a homicide investigation after the remains of the two children were discovered in the Auckland suburb of Clendon on August 11. The children's bodies had been found inside some suitcases that had been stored inside a Safe Store unit in Papatoetoe.
The children, who had been dead for some time, were only discovered after an unsuspecting buyer bought the storage unit in an online auction and began unpacking it in the yard of their home.
They have no connection to the case.
South Korean authorities said in September it received a request from New Zealand to arrest the woman - the key suspect in the case. It's understood she'd left New Zealand for Korea in 2018 - where she's remained ever since.
She was arrested in the South Korean city of Ulsan, on September 15, with officials also obtaining material evidence requested by New Zealand authorities.
In late October, on the basis that officials in South Korea determined there was probable cause to suspect the 42-year-old had committed an extraditable offence, the Asian nation's Minister of Justice ordered an extradition hearing take place.
Then in mid-November the Seoul High Court granted the extradition, after the woman agreed to it in writing. Days later the Minister of Justice made the final call to surrender the murder-accused within 30 days of November 14.
She was surrendered to NZ authorities on November 28 at Incheon Airport near Seoul - along with the requested evidence. She arrived with a police escort in Auckland the following day and was detained in custody till her court appearance.
The woman remains in custody.
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