Six Australian students suspected of murder in Peru

“Peru Six” Facebook page

Federal Attorney General Mark Dreyfus says he has met with some of the six Australian students wanted overseas in relation to the death of a hotel doorman in Peru.

The three young Sydney men and two men and woman from Melbourne have launched a social media campaign to clear their names after being nominated as prime suspects in the death of the doorman, who reportedly fell from the balcony of a Lima hotel in 2012.

Mr Dreyfus would not confirm if there were moves to extradite the so-called “Peru Six”.

However he did confirm that Australia has an extradition treaty with Peru.

Mr Dreyfus said the group was continuing to receive assistance from the Australian embassy in Lima and Foreign Minister Bob Carr.

“I did meet with three of the six young Australians who are involved in this matter in Peru and with some of their families last week,” Mr Dreyfus told reporters in Sydney today.

“There’s been very high level contact between the Australian government and the government of Peru, but I can’t comment further.”

Mr Dreyfus said the predicament of the group was a matter of concern.

“One can only imagine the stress that they must be feeling to be bound up in a matter like this,” he said.

On their Facebook page, titled Completely wrongly accused, the group says “18 months ago we were just six friends travelling South America but became victims of being in the wrong place at the wrong time”.

The page had 3284 “likes” and many messages of support today.

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