Kopp to Fight Extradition From France

James Charles Kopp, the American wanted in the United States on charges of killing a doctor who performed abortions, has appealed a French court’s ruling that he can be extradited, his lawyer said.

Herve Rouzaud-Leboeuf said his client’s appeal to the Court of Cassation, France’s highest appeals court, would not be heard before September. Extradition procedures have been suspended.

A court last week in the northwestern city of Rennes said Kopp, 46, who is on the FBI’s most wanted list, could be sent home to answer murder charges as long as he would not face the death penalty if convicted.

France banned capital punishment in 1981 and refuses to extradite people who face it abroad.

Kopp was arrested in the nearby town of Dinan in March after more than two years on the run.

A federal grand jury indicted him in October for the murder of Barnett Slepian, who was shot to death sniper-style in his home in a suburb of Buffalo, New York, in 1998.

Washington sent the court a letter declaring that the death penalty would not be sought. Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft said he had agreed to that “to ensure that Kopp is not released from custody and is brought to justice in America.”