Saba University School of Medicine
SABA--The man who strangled Saba University School of Medicine (SUSOM) student Kavya Guda (24) to death in April 2015 was extradited to Bonaire last Friday to serve his eleven-year sentence for manslaughter.
Senad Cejvan is no stranger to being forced to return to the Caribbean Netherlands in handcuffs. The first time was in January 2017, when the native of Bosnia and Herzegovina was extradited from Missouri, United States (US), to stand trial for murdering his fellow student in her apartment on Clement Sorton Street.
Caribbean Netherlands prison in Bonaire
Guda’s body, half-dressed and her hands bound, was discovered the following morning. The California woman’s killing shocked the small and tight-knit community of Saba, which at that point had not recorded a murder in 26 years.
Forensic investigators linked Cejvan’s DNA to Guda’s clothes and an autopsy found his genetic material in her body. Cejvan said he had a secret sexual relationship with Guda, a claim that was not backed up by any witnesses.
However, the Court of First Instance acquitted Cejvan of homicide in December 2017, ruling that it could not exclude that Guda had died as a result of an accident, such as during consensual erotic asphyxiation play that had gotten out of hand.
The prosecutor had demanded three years in prison, pleading for a conviction of negligent homicide while not considering Cejvan guilty of the more serious charges of murder, manslaughter and rape.
However, the lower court did find Cejvan guilty of possession of child pornography, the second charge on his indictment, which stemmed from no less than 706 images of sometimes very young children on his laptop. He was given 12 months in prison for this charge, which meant that he was released from custody shortly after the verdict.
Cejvan’s luck changed during the appeal trial in 2021, when the Joint Court of Justice overturned the lower court’s acquittal. The three-judge panel found it convincingly proven that he had violently killed Guda during sexual intercourse and sentenced him to 11 years in prison for manslaughter.
The Dutch Supreme Court confirmed this verdict in December 2022, agreeing with the Joint Court that many of Cejvan’s statements to investigators were “clearly false.” This made the 11-year sentence irrevocable.
However, the Prosecutor’s Office in the Caribbean Netherlands still had to locate Cejvan and request his extradition.
“Since the sentence became final, the Prosecutor’s Office has made efforts to trace [Cejvan – Ed.] in order to request his extradition. This investigation allowed [Cejvan] to be traced [and arrested] in the United States,” the Prosecutor’s Office in the Caribbean Netherlands said in a press release on Tuesday. “He will spend the next 11 years serving his sentence for this terrible crime, on Bonaire.”
