PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) — A judge has ruled that the Rhode Island man accused of faking his own death and fleeing the country to avoid prosecution can be extradited back to the United States, according to the BBC.

Nicholas Alahverdian, 35, faces rape allegations out of Utah.

The BBC reports that Sheriff Norman McFadyen — who earlier dismissed Alahverdian’s claim to be the victim of mistaken identity — ruled there is no legal barrier to him being sent back to the United States.

Alahverdian, who also goes by Nicholas Rossi, was taken into custody in Scotland last year after he was hospitalized with COVID-19. At the time, investigators said he was living under the name Arthur Knight, an identity he’d created after faking his death in 2020.

Investigators were able to identify him as Alahverdian by matching the tattoos on his arms to a booking photo from when he was previously arrested in Pawtucket.

In June, a doctor told the court he had no medical need for his wheelchair or the oxygen mask he was wearing, but Alahverdian disputed those claims.

The final decision on his extradition now rests with Scottish ministers.