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MY TELNO 1060 AND HONG KONG TELNO 1667: EXTRADITION TO HONG KONG FROM FRANCE OF SANIMAN
SUMMARY
1.
Next steps in Saniman
Instructions requested on whether
we should attempt to interrupt or merely accelerate the appeal
process.
DETAIL
2. We discussed the Saniman case on 26 October with the French Lawyers representing HMG and HKG (Mme Masse and Bertolas) and with the Ministry of Justice (Mme Poitou, International Section).
3.
The answers to the questions in Hong Kong TUR are:
(a) Saniman has sought bail. The Versailles court will hear the case next week (the Justice Ministry do not yet know which day).
(b) Mme Masse told us that Saniman Lodged an appeal on 19 October against the extradition decree (the day the Prime Minister signed it).
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(c) Without asking them, we cannot be sure whether the French authorities would be prepared to extradite Saniman before the end of the appeal process. But there is no reason to believe that the French would easily break with legal tradition in this way. Mme Masse thinks that we should therefore not pursue this option. She believes, however, that there is scope for us to put pressure on the Justice Ministry and the Conseil d'Etat to accelerate the appeal process (Saniman has four months to submit his detailed case ie until 19 February 1994). Bertolas stressed the desirability of avoiding a public debate in the Conseil d'Etat on post-1997 Hong Kong which might result from a full appeal hearing. This might argue for an attempt to interrupt the appeal process. But, on balance, we are inclined to agree with Mme Masse: a request to the French to break Legal tradition does not, on the face of it, seem likely to succeed and might damage our case. Grateful for
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