L
R
HKD384/1
28 APR 1993
British Embassy
Paris
(28
received 26 Aquil.
28 April 1993
Ms D Barnes Jones
INO
HKD
FCO
Dear Dobbie,
Miss
duplicate?
subsbhte
for copy book
desty. ly so
EXTRADITION OF RAIS BIN SANIMAN
1.
35 rue du Faubourg St Honoré
75383 Paris cedex 08
Telephone: (1) 42 66 91 42
Facsimile: (1) 42 66 95 90
Paris telnos 367 and 368 deal with the main action point which arose from John Macgregor's and my call on Mme Masse-Dessen, our lawyer in the Saniman case, yesterday evening, 21 April.
2.
Mme Masse-Dessen also asked for clarification of the following points, in order to respond to the observations of Saniman's lawyer (of which an English translation is enclosed):
a.
What exactly is the status of Hong Kong for international relations? Is Hong Kong covered by the UK/France extradition treaty of 1876?
b.
If extradited to Hong Kong, will Saniman's life be in danger? Do we have any information on the murders of witnesses raised in section 1.2?
She said that the Hong Kong lawyers had already been asked about both these points, but she had received no response. Can you help?
3.
We are pursuing here Saniman's lawyer's argument (section 3) about the invalidity of the request for extradition of 31 May 1990.
4.
In general, Mme Masse-Dessen expressed surprise at the tactics of Saniman's lawyer, and thought his arguments rather weak. The key question was whether the Conseil d'Etat would want to involve itself in a case which would set a precedent not just in extradition terms but also on whether a foreign government could bring an appeal against the French government to the Conseil d'Etat about an international treaty.
5.
On the timetable, Mme Masse-Dessen explained that the French Minister of Justice had 15 days (which was
occasionally extended) from 9 April to submit his observations. Mme Masse-Dessen would then have 15 days (which again could be extended) to respond to the arguments
SaniExt.2604