Extradition case against Fulcher

Press, 29 May 1985, Page 8

Extradition case against Fulcher

NZPA staff correspondent Sydney Sydney magistrates will set a date on June 3 for the resumption of extradition proceedings against the wanted New Zealander, Peter Fhlcher.

Fulcher, whom the New Zealand police want to put on trial for his alleged part in an abortive bank raid in Auckland in 1980, made a brief appearance in a Sydney court this week and had the matter adjourned. The New Zealand police expected a date to be set this week for the extradition hearing, but Fulcher, whose counsel was not at the court, asked for the matter to be delayed another week. The Magistrate at Waverley Court at Bondi ordered Fulcher to continue to be held at Long Bay Jail and to be back in court next Monday.

He ordered that a date be set then for what the New Zealand police expect will

be a long extradition battle. Fulcher was arrested at a Bondi motel on January 5 after being hunted by the police since his release from prison a month earlier. He had served a sentence on a drug-import-ing conviction. Fulcher’s release, in spite of the fact a warrant had already been issued for his arrest on the Auckland bank robbery charge, sparked a Tasman row that involved the New Zealand Prime Minister, Mr Lange, and the Australian Deputy Prime Minister and Attorney-Gen-eral, Mr Lionel Bowen. Soon after Fulcher appeared in court in Sydney for extradition hearings, he was charged with the robbery of a Sydney post office.

Earlier this month a district court jury acquitted him of that charge, and the extradition proceedings were set to start again. A bail application was rejected a fortnight ago.