Justice Minister Penuell Maduna has signed the papers authorising the extradition of former Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) member James Kilgore who is wanted in the United States for murder, a representative said on Saturday.
Justice representative Paul Setsetse said Maduna signed the extradition order on Friday. It would be handed to Interpol for execution by no later than Tuesday, he added.
”The order will be handed to Interpol during the course of this long weekend. We are hoping that Interpol will facilitate Kilgore’s departure as quickly as possible,” Setsetse said.
Maduna’s signature was all that was needed for Kilgore to be handed over to US authorities. While Kilgore formally consented to the extradition last week, South Africa could not by itself decide when he should leave, Setsetse said.
Kilgore was arrested on November 8 in Cape Town, where he was living and working as a respected academic under the alias Charles Pape.
He is wanted by a US federal court on charges related to the possession of a pipe bomb and for a passport offence. He is also wanted by a California state court in connection with a first-degree murder charge and the use of an unlicensed weapon in that murder.
Twenty-seven years ago he was a member of the radical SLA rebel group, an organisation best remembered for its kidnapping of newspaper heiress Patty Hearst.
The murder charge related to the killing of 42-year-old Myrna Opsahl in an SLA bank robbery in Carmichael, north of Sacramento, in 1975.
Four other SLA members recently pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in a California court, and are to be sentenced in February under a plea agreement involving sentences of between six to eight years’ jail. The same deal has been offered to Kilgore.
Kilgore’s attorney Michael Evans said last week that the FBI and other American authorities have indicated it will take about a week from the time the minister surrenders him for extradition to get him back there.
Kilgore is being held in Goodwood Prison. He has said that after he has served his sentence he intended to return to South Africa to continue ”building a democratic society”. ‒ Sapa