Argentina’s highest court has approved the extradition of a former Federal Emergency Management Agency spokesman who claims the U.S. government helped frame him for murder.

Kurt Sonnenfeld says video he took of ground zero after the 2001 terrorist attacks proves U.S. complicity.

Three members of the Argentina National Supreme Court approved the extradition of Sonnenfeld on Monday with the assurance from U.S. officials that Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey’s office will not seek the death penalty against Sonnenfeld, according to an online posting by the Argentine high court.

Lynn Kimbrough, a spokeswoman for Morrissey, referred all comment to the U.S. Justice Department. Justice Department officials did not respond to a request for comment.

According to published reports in Argentina, the country’s executive branch also must approve the extradition. Sonnenfeld has a pending request for political asylum in Argentina.

Sonnenfeld called 911 dispatchers in the early morning of Jan. 1, 2002, a few months after the terror attacks, claiming that his wife had shot herself in the head.

Denver police, believing the scene was staged, arrested Sonnenfeld that morning. But prosecutors in the office of former Denver District Attorney Bill Ritter, who later became governor, dismissed the charges several months later because of insufficient evidence at the time.

The following year, murder charges were refiled against Sonnenfeld after Denver homicide detectives developed new evidence against him.

By then, Sonnenfeld had moved to Argentina and married an Argentine translator and college student.

Sonnenfeld was held for seven months in Villa Devoto, an infamous Buenos Aires prison until a federal judge rejected the U.S. extradition request.

Sonnenfeld was released and subsequently wrote a book, “El Perseguido,” or “The Hunted,” in which he chronicled what he called ongoing efforts by the U.S. government to silence him because of his video. The book is in its second printing.

In prior e-mails with The Denver Post, Sonnenfeld said he publicized his story to protect his family after a botched attempted kidnapping of his second wife, Paula Sonnenfeld.

The couple has twin daughters.

He has appeared on international news programs. Despite the murder charge, he has won the support of numerous Argentine and international human rights organizations as well as Adolfo Esquivel, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1980. Sonnenfeld has been compared to James Bond in articles, including a 10-page spread in the popular magazine Gente.

In extensive e-mails to The Post, Sonnenfeld denied having anything to do with the death of his first wife, a Denver advertising executive. He claims that she shot herself shortly after the couple returned home from a New Year’s Eve soiree.

Kirk Mitchell: 303-954-1206, kmitchell@denverpost.com or twitter.com/kirkmitchell, denverpost.com/coldcases