PROVIDENCE — An extradition hearing for David Swain, charged with killing his wife while scuba diving in the Caribbean in 1999, has been postponed until next month.

The hearing had been scheduled for today. But a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Providence said the hearing is now on for Dec. 5 at 10 a.m. before U.S. Magistrate Judge Lincoln D. Almond.

Swain, a former Jamestown Town Council member who owns a dive shop, was arrested last week on a murder warrant brought by authorities in Tortola.

Swain’s arrest culminated months of quiet diplomacy between U.S. State and Justice department officials and diplomats with the British Virgin Islands and the United Kingdom.

Until then, Swain, 51, had never been criminally charged in the death of his wife, a private school administrator and expert diver.

The lawyer for Swain, an assistant federal defender, has requested more time to prepare for the international extradition hearing, citing its rarity and the “voluminous” nature of the warrant.