13. In October 1992 the Hong Kong Attorney General wrote to
the FCO asking for assistance at a political level to reinforce
the latest legal move. A number of attempts were made to raise
the case with senior French officials but action at a higher
level was delayed until after the French elections. The
Attorney General wrote to the French Minister of Justice in
April this year asking if his Ministry would receive a small
team of British and Hong Kong experts to discuss the case. After an unsuccesful attempt to set up such a meeting (French officials said they would only listen to but not discuss the
case), the present Ministerial meeting was agreed.
REASONS FOR FRENCH REFUSAL TO EXTRADITE
14.
The ostensible reasons put forward by the French Ministry
of Justice are that the alleged conspiracies to defraud are not
offences under French law and that there are no new facts in
relation to the three charges of theft to justify departing
from the decision in the first request of 1987. The nub of our
argument in the proceedings before the Conseil d'Etat is that
those reasons are invalid both intrinsically and because they
contradict the findings of the competent French Courts.
15. As for other reasons for the French refusal we can only
speculate. However, there have been hints in informal contacts
between our Embassy in Paris and the Ministry that the real
reason for the French refusal to extradite was concern that
Saniman would not receive a fair trial in Hong Kong or might
even be in fear of his life. It may be that some of the
allegations made in the lengthy Osman proceedings, while
rejected by the English courts, have remained in the minds of
the French Ministry of Justice.
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Private notes are available after approval.