A French appeal court yesterday approved the extradition of a US anti-abortion activist suspected of killing a doctor. Mr James Kopp (46) spent 12 months in Ireland until March this year and used pseudonyms such as "Seamus O'Briain".
Mr Kopp was employed for a week at the City of Dublin Skin and Cancer Hospital in Hume Street at the end of January and in early February as a temporary typist. He also stayed with a religious order in south Dublin who were also unaware of his identity.
He is accused of shooting Dr Barnet Slepian (52) on October 23, 1998, in Amherst, near Buffalo in New York. But French fears that Mr Kopp, who is facing a federal murder charge, could face the death penalty almost derailed the extradition process.
Mr Kopp's extradition was put back after the US Attorney General, Mr John Ashcroft, intervened to offer assurances that if found guilty he would not face lethal injection.
The appeal court in Rennes, in France, said it backed the extradition demand under the condition that "the death penalty will not be requested, pronounced or applied".
Mr Kopp's defence lawyer, Mr Herve Rouzaud-Le Boeuf, said a decision on whether to appeal would be made in the next few days.
The prosecutor, Mr Dominique Mathieu, said DNA found on fibres from Mr Kopp's US home matched hair found in a green hat abandoned near Dr Slepian's home."Mr Kopp should be extradited if US guarantees are judged sufficient," Mr Mathieu said. Mr Kopp denies the charge. Dr Slepian was shot in Buffalo, leaving him the third US gynaecologist to be murdered in five years.
Mr Kopp, a carpenter, was a leading figure in the "pro-life" movement and between 1984 and 1997 was arrested more than 20 times for attempting to disrupt the work of abortion clinics.
Until his arrest on March 27th in Dinan, in Brittany, Mr Kopp was on the FBI's "10 Most Wanted" list of fugitives. He has since been held in custody in Rennes.