From:

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010329/ts/crime_abortion_dc_1.html

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - James Kopp, one of the FBI (news - web sites)'s 10 most wanted fugitives who allegedly killed a doctor who performed abortions in upstate New York, has been taken into custody in France, the FBI said on Thursday.

Kopp, an abortion foe, was wanted for allegedly killing on Oct. 23, 1998, Barnett Slepian, a doctor who performed abortions, at Slepian's home in Amherst, New York.

An FBI spokeswoman had no further details on the arrest, but said a news conference would be held in Buffalo, where the investigation has been based.

Slepian, 52, an obstetrician-gynecologist, was shot by a sniper as he stood in the kitchen of his home in the Buffalo suburb of Amherst, talking with his wife and one of his four sons.

-- Johnny Canuck (j_canuck@hotmail.com), March 29, 2001

Answers

Good news, but it seems a little odd that this guy went to France. Does he have any personal connections to France?

-- Tarzan the Ape Man (tarzan@swingingthroughthejunglewithouta.net), March 29, 2001.

James Kopp should be turned over to NOW for his sentencing.

-- (Way to@go.FBI!), March 29, 2001.

James Kopp should be turned over to NOW for his sentencing.

-- (Way to@go.FBI!), March 29, 2001. =============

All murder is wrong, Kopp will get his just as Slepian has already faced God and is now rotting in Hell.....

-- all life is (sacred@life.com), March 29, 2001.

the last post has troll written all over it

-- ---TROLL DETECTOR--- (----@TROLL DETECTOR._____), March 29, 2001.

>>James Kopp should be turned over to NOW for his sentencing NOW? You want NOW to be the lynch mob? Can anyone still respect that organization the way they joined fawning ranks against their own abused, to protect the President against rape and abuse charges? Let's see, protect power base, or protect women, which should I choose????

NOW is forever morally bankrupt. Perhaps it should change its name to THEN.

-- js (jsimpleton@skidmore.edu), March 30, 2001.

France Moves American Fugitive

by PIERRE DELACOTTE Associated Press Writer

RENNES, France (AP) -- An American fugitive wanted in the 1998 slaying of a Buffalo, N.Y., abortion doctor was being transferred Friday to a prison in the Breton capital of Rennes.

James Kopp, 46, was arrested Thursday in Dinan, a small tourist town on France's northwest coast, following a two-year international manhunt.

Kopp, of St. Albans, Vt., became one of the FBI's most wanted fugitives after Dr. Barnett Slepian was killed in front of his home by a sniper's bullet. He is also wanted by Canadian authorities for allegedly wounding an abortion doctor there in 1995.

French police officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Kopp, known as ''Atomic Dog'' in anti-abortion circles, used the name ''O'Brian'' and held three passports -- one American and two Irish. He had lived in Ireland for about a year, according to U.S. officials.

Around 3 p.m. Friday, Kopp was placed in an unmarked police car and taken out of Dinan's court house for the drive to Rennes, where he was to be jailed while awaiting a formal extradition request from the United States.

The United States has 40 days to file a request, which would be heard by three Rennes judges.

One of the federal charges facing Kopp carries a potential death penalty. France abolished the death penalty in 1981 and, under French law, foreign nationals are not extradited to countries where they could face the death penalty.

The United States' continued application of the death penalty is currently a heated issue in France. On Friday, President Jacques Chirac, speaking at the U.N. Human Rights Commission in Geneva, called for the ''universal abolition of the death penalty with a first step being a general moratorium.''

''If the Americans aim high, they could have difficulties,'' said Rennes prosecutor Robert Baffert.

FBI Director Louis Freeh acknowledged that Kopp's extradition would be a long process.

''We have extradited many people back from France including people who were originally charged with capital offenses,'' Freeh said Thursday in Washington.

French police were tightlipped about the circumstances of Kopp's arrest. The judicial officials said he was arrested at 4:25 p.m. while picking up a package from the post office in Dinan, a pleasure port near one of France's most popular tourist sites, Mont Saint Michel.

In the United States, FBI agent Joel Mercer said Kopp was preparing to pick up a package from New York containing $300.

Kopp left Ireland March 12, according to the FBI, but it was unclear when he arrived in France, where police had followed him for several days.

He was about to leave France when he was caught, Freeh said.

''Going back several weeks we had some very strong leads,'' Freeh said, when asked how long the FBI knew Kopp was in France. ''Our investigation determined that he was about to leave France. Had he left, it would have further complicated'' the investigation.

Two people who provided assistance to Kopp were arrested in the United States, according to federal authorities in New York.

Freeh thanked the French National Police for ''very efficient police enforcement action.''

AP-NY-03-30-01 1049EST< 

-- (upd@t.e), March 30, 2001.