2-05-11 11:56 CLIFFORD CHANCE PARIS 1 44055200
P.3/3
submit at least new or stronger arguments and to use political support were available.
3. I also to confirm that the French Government is most unlikely to simply reconsider its decision whatever be the involvement of the British Government if an alternative solution to extradition to Hong Kong or at least to Mr SANIMAN's serving his sentence in Hong Kong is not supplied.
4. As stated in your fax, we have indeed speculated of the reasons which could have prompted the French Government to refuse extradition. The official reason ie that the French Government feared to be overruled by the Conseil d'Etat at a later stage still carries some weight, although the
reasons given by the French Government (the alleged offenses would not ?
correspond to offenses punished under French law or would be time-barred) are so unconvincing that there must be other reasons which have not been plainly stated. This led us to think that 1997 was very likely one of the issues considered at the Ministry of Justice and that, for reasons of diplomatic courtesy, the French authorities did not want to put this type of reasons on paper. The fact that forged documents may have been presented, through the advocate of Mr SANIMAN, to the Ministry of Justice may also have interfered: this should be an item at least to mention in the gracious request.
Would you have any details (type of documents, purposes thereof, how they could have affected the decision)?
Kind regards,
1
Jean-Paul BERTOLAS Avocat à la Cour