22 January 1993
Miss Deborah Barnes-Jones
Hong Kong Department FCO
ΓΓΛ LL JHI 30
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British Embassy Paris
35 rue du Faubourg Si Honore
75383 Paris cedex 08
Telephone: (1) 42 66 91 42 Facsimile: (1) 42 66 95 90
How exciting!
Dan Debbie
SANIMAN EXTRADITION CASE
1.
Thank you for your letter of 23 December. I am sorry it has taken some time to reply, but I wished to talk to both the cabinet of the Minister of Justice and the lawyer of the Conseil d'Etat who is representing Hong Kong before reacting. As it happens, I was able to see Thébault and Mme Masse-Dessen
(separately) yesterday.
2. My conclusion from these two conversations is that we need to keep our nerve, and to wait. As you know, in taking this matter before the Conseil d'Etat we have entered ground where there is no precedent. Thébault described us as having challenged the whole basis of extradition appeal as it had existed until last year. The present government, Thébault said, was determined not to create a precedent and was challenging every misplaced comma and full-stop in anything our lawyer put up to the Conseil. Mme Masse-Dessen confirmed
that we had put the cat among the pigeons, but are by no means without friends at the Conseil d'Etat where "the British case" is consideredone of the most interesting legal conundrums they are facing at the moment.
3. This cuts both ways. On the one hand, Thébault is claiming that they will see us off without mercy, and that he is "99% sure" that we shall lose if the matter comes before the court of the Conseil for consideration. Mme Masse-Dessen sees a certain strength in this position. She says that she has had informal indications from the Conseil that they would much rather not have to decide (trancher) this matter. They appeared to favour a compromise settlement with the Government and for our appeal to be withdrawn.
4.
This would only be worth doing if we could achieve a satisfactory settlement. My discussion with Thébault revealed very little scope for doing a deal with the present
government. Their line is that our appeal must be dismissed,
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