NewsMax.com Wires
Friday, March 30, 2001

Kopp is on the FBI's "10 Most Wanted Fugitives" list.

A sniper killed Dr. Barnett Slepian of Amherst, N.Y., as he stood in his kitchen talking to his children in October 1998. Reports said Slepian had been receiving death threats for years because he provided abortions, and he even predicted that he would be the victim of such an attack in a letter to the Buffalo News in 1994.

In 1999, investigators found a rifle buried near the Slepian residence. Kopp, an anti-abortion activist, was identified as the main suspect in the killing in May 1999. Efforts to find and arrest him at first concentrated on nearby Canada but were expanded worldwide.

According to Fox News:

Police followed Kopp for several days before apprehending him as he was about to leave France, FBI Director Louis Freeh said. He said the French arrested Kopp after learning of his whereabouts from the FBI, and the case also involved authorities in Canada, the United Kingdom and Ireland.

Freeh said that two New Yorkers who aided Kopp would be arrested soon, but that there was no indication anti-abortion groups helped Kopp.

"We are committed to bringing Mr. Kopp back to the United States to face these charges," Attorney General John Ashcroft said at a Justice Department news conference, where he appeared with Freeh.

It could be months before Kopp is returned, however, because extradition from France can be long and complicated.

Copyright 2001 by United Press International. All rights reserved.