the French Government will again have to make a decision, positive or negative, to extradite Mr. Saniman. It could refuse again to extradite, but based on grounds other than legal e.g. human rights, especially if, 1997 approaching, there is political or social unrest in Hong Kong.
Mrs. Masse confirmed her opinion that the French authorities are nevertheless very anxious not to have the matter brought before the Conseil d'Etat principally because this would create a precedent for other foreign governments.
1.2. Mrg. Masse confirmed that it is possible for a party to administrative proceedings to withdraw its action at any time and that it would not be unusual for the Government of the Colony to withdraw the action if the negotiations with the French Government do not succeed, provided only this is not made immediately before the Conseil d'Etat, having heard the matter, is about to make a decision.
Mrs. Masse indicated that, in her opinion, it will be only in six months time that one will be able to decide to renounce the action and generally put an end to the attempts to extradite Mr. Saniman. She considers that the French authorities are likely to wait until after the filing by the Government of the Colony of its second set of pleadings to assess arguments which will be submitted to the Conseil d'Etat and also to assess whether the Government of the Colony and the British Government determined to pursue the matter.
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She indicated that it is very important that the French authorities do not doubt that the Government of the Colony will litigate until a decision is made by the Conseil d'Etat, as only the reluctance of the French authorities to have this action become public may prompt them to decide to extradite Mr. Saniman.
1.3. Mrs. Masse indicated that she considers that she must be in a position to confirm to the civil servants of the Ministry of Justice who have dealt with the file at a technical level that Mr. Saniman was actively involved in one of the main elements of the offence of fraud ("escroquerie") in French law 1.9. the creation of brass-plate companies set up only for the purposes of deceiving BMFL. Graham Harris said that he would contact his office and arrange for gathering evidence on the various borrowers as well as evidence Mr. Saniman could not ignore that these companies were fictitious. Mrs. Masse emphasised that she needs only to make a short answer to the Ministry of Justice with essentials factual information : names and details of the fictitious companies, dates of creation, companies' registry extracts, how Mr. Saniman knew of the fictitiousness of these companies or whether he was a director thereof or otherwise involved with them.
The next step will be for Mrs. Masse to write to the Ministry of Justice to say that the evidence is available.
Mrs. Masse emphasised, indeed, that the civil servants of the Ministry of Justice are unlikely to reverse their position on the res judicata issue but could, subject to additional political pressure (see 2 below), be convinced that the facts reproached to Mr. Saniman correspond to the definition of "escroquerie". In parallel to this action at the technical level, Mrs. Magge said that further action at the political level might be desirable :
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