James Kopp, Sought in connection with the death of a doctor
A fugitive American anti-abortion activist charged with killing a New York doctor in 1998 was transferred today to a prison in the French provincial capital of Rennes following his arrest yesterday at a village post office in western France. French authorities are holding the fugitive, James Charles Kopp, aged 46, in anticipation of a request to extradite him to the United States. Washington has 40 days to file a formal extradition request for consideration by a panel of three French judges, but the process could take longer because of French opposition to the death penalty.
Mr Kopp was living in Dublin and possibly working in a hospital here. He is also reported to have spent time in Britain in the last year. He left Dublin just over two weeks ago, when the FBI tracked him down to Ireland and Gardaí were preparing to move in on him. He turned up in France, and was arrested there by plainclothes police yesterday.
Mr Kopp has been charged in the US with the murder of a doctor in upstate New York. Dr Barnett Slepian was shot dead in his kitchen by a sniper. It was one of a number of attacks on doctors who perform abortions. James Kopp later fled the country, and was on the FBI's most wanted list. They have praised police in Ireland, France, Britain and Canada for helping to track him down.
Two people were arrested in Brooklyn yesterday, and charged with assisting James Kopp. He is to be questioned by French prosecutors today. The US is seeking his extradition, one obstacle to that, however, is that the possibility that he might face the death penalty in America.
