Nearly 48 years after two women were stabbed to death in their Melbourne home, the man accused of carrying out the killings has been charged and faced court for the first time.

A man is set to be charged with the murder of two women after he was extradited from Rome to Australia almost 47 years after one of the country’s most notable cold cases.

Kouroumblis was arrested at Rome’s Leonardo Da Vinci Airport in September over the alleged slaying of Suzanne Armstrong, 28, and Susan Bartlett, 27, in January 1977. Dubbed the “Easey Street murders”, the friends were found dead with more than two dozen stab wounds in their home on Easey Street in Collingwood in Melbourne’s inner north.

After arriving on a late-night flight under police guard, Perry Kouroumblis is set to face court later today over the alleged double murder of two Melbourne women in 1977.

Dressed in a black jumper and sporting a beard, Kouroumblis sat quietly in economy class seat 35E without handcuffs, eating a meal and drinking water.

Charges have been laid over one of Australia's most high-profile cold case murders, with a man extradited from Italy charged with rape and two counts of murder.

The siblings of two women who were stabbed to death nearly five decades ago have stared down the alleged murderer as he finally faced a Melbourne court.  Perry Kouroumblis, 65, appeared bleary-eyed as he sat in the dock of the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Wednesday after arriving on Australian soil on Tuesday night.