LONDON (AP) An American fugitive accused of faking his own death to avoid a rape charge in Utah can be extradited to the U.S., a judge in Scotland ruled Wednesday after calling the mans claims of mistaken identity implausible and fanciful.

The wanted man known in Scotland as Nicholas Rossi fought his return since being arrested in December 2021 at a Glasgow hospital, where he was being treated for COVID-19. He repeatedly appeared in court and in several television interviews in a wheelchair using an oxygen mask and insisted he was an Irish orphan named Arthur Knight who had never set foot on American soil.

But judge Norman McFadyen in Edinburgh Sheriff Court had previously said fingerprint and tattoo evidence showed the man was Rossi.