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Adelaide, Australia. Australian officials said on Thursday that they would deport an American convicted of killing his wife on a scuba-diving honeymoon after US officials pledged not to seek the death penalty if he was convicted again at home.

Gabe Watson was released from prison last week after serving an 18-month sentence for the manslaughter of his wife, Tina, in 2003 during a trip on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.

He was being held in immigration custody until Australia — which opposes the death penalty — received assurances that he would not face capital charges in his home state of Alabama, which is pro-death penalty.

But prosecutors there want to try Watson again over his wife’s death and are expected to seek murder charges.

An immigration spokeswoman said the Australian government had received assurances from US officials that “the death penalty would not be sought, imposed or carried out.”

“We are now satisfied that our international obligations have been met and are commencing plans for Watson’s removal,” she said, saying his deportation would be carried out “as soon as possible.”

Later, a fellow department spokesman said Watson’s return to the United States could be within 48 hours.

Adrian Braithwaite, Watson’s Brisbane-based lawyer, said the Australian government had refused to show him a copy of the US assurance because it was a diplomatic document.

“At the moment, I’m not taking the word of the government that they have received the assurances,” the lawyer said.

“I want to be provided with a copy of the correspondence received from the United States so that we can be satisfied that it’s a binding assurance and properly advise our client,” he added.

He said Watson was “ready for whatever may happen upon his return to the United States.”

“He’s not running scared from what might occur in Alabama,” Braithwaite said.

Watson was dubbed the “Honeymoon Killer” by the Australian news media after his wife of 11 days, 26-year-old Tina Watson, drowned during a 2003 scuba-diving trip.

In 2008, nearly five years after Tina drowned, the Queensland state coroner found there was sufficient evidence to charge Watson with her death, and he was officially charged with murder a few months later.

Last year, Watson — who had remarried — traveled to Australia to face trial.

Officials in Queensland state initially charged him with murder, saying he killed his wife by turning off her air supply and holding her underwater.

When Watson pleaded guilty to the lesser manslaughter charge last year, he was sentenced to 18 months — a punishment Tina’s family and Alabama authorities slammed as far too lenient.

David Glasgow, a Queensland coroner, said a possible motive for the killing was Tina’s modest life insurance policy.

Alabama Attorney General Troy King has said he believed Watson devised a plot in Alabama to kill his wife on their honeymoon, which would give the United States jurisdiction to charge him.

King has argued that there are no international standards on double jeopardy that prevent Alabama from trying Watson again over the death.
 

Associated Press