Brazil extradites Paraguayan ex-mayor Vilmar Acosta in journalist killing

Asuncion: Brazil has extradited a Paraguayan former mayor to face trial for the slaying of a journalist and the reporter's aide last year.

Yesterday, Paraguayan prosecutors accused Vilmar Acosta of ordering the October 16, 2014, killing of journalist Pablo Medina and Antonia Almada in a crime-ridden northern region that is a hotbed for drug and arms smuggling.

Medina worked for the newspaper ABC Color and focused on investigations exposing corruption and drug trafficking. Prosecutors say Medina was probing Acosta's alleged involvement in marijuana smuggling.

Acosta, 40, was elected mayor of a northern town in 2010 as a member of the now-governing Colorado party.

He was arrested in March in the Brazilian city of Campo Grande. Acosta arrived in the Paraguayan capital of Asuncion yesterday and was expected to be questioned at a court next week.

Paraguayan President Horacio Cartes said on his Facebook page that the extradition is important to defend freedom of speech and he hopes the crime can be solved so impunity in the South American nation "becomes a thing of the past."