French Law Prohibits Extraditing DSK Back to the U.S.

Let's clear up some confusion over extradition treaties between the U.S. and France; France does not have an extradition treaty with the U.S., whereby law enforcement officials here can force France to deport French nationals.

This relates to supposed “inaccuracies” made by reporters that “France does not have an extradition treaty with other countries,” when those statements are, in fact, correct.

This matters, because Dominique Strauss-Kahn, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, sits in a cell in New York’s Rikers Island jail, awaiting a court hearing on criminal felony charges of attempted rape and sexual assault of a hotel housekeeper.

Question: Why is it “attempted” rape and not just “rape” given the sentence in a criminal complaint filed by the city of New York that reads: “the defendant engaged in oral sexual conduct and anal sexual conduct with another person by forcible compulsion,” and that “the defendant restrained another person; the defendant subjected another person to sexual contact without the latter’s consent.”

Sounds like rape to me.

Here are the relevant clauses out of the extradition treaties:

Article 3(1) of the EXTRADITION TREATY BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND FRANCE, SIGNED AT PARIS ON APRIL 23, 1996

http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=105_cong_documents&docid=f:td013.105.pdf

Article 3(1) declares that “neither State has an obligation to extradite its own nationals, but the executive authority of the United States shall have the discretion to do so. The nationality of the person sought shall be the nationality of the person at the time the offense was committed.” Note there is no sentence here that reads “but the executive authority of France shall have the discretion to do so.”

France’s “Code of Criminal Procedure Article 696-4”

http://195.83.177.9/code/liste.phtml?lang=uk&c=34&r=4067

France’s “Code of Criminal Procedure Article 696-4” reads “extradition is not granted: 1. where the requested person is of French nationality, as determined at the date of the offence for which the extradition is requested…”