THE FRENCH ESCAPEES.

Thames Advertiser, Volume XX, Issue 6156, 25 July 1888, Page 2

THE FRENCH ESCAPEES.

WRIT OF HABEAS CORPUS ISSUED

[BY TELEGRAPH.--PRESS ASSOCIATION.]

Wellington, last nigbt. Mr 11. S, Fitzherbert, solicitor, accompanied by Mr G. Kobertson as Interpreter, went to the Terrace gaol for the purpose of taking the necessary steps to issue a writ of Habeas Corpus on behalf of the prisoner Gasparini, who is at present in custody on an order of the Supreme Court for extradition to New Caledonia. The principal grounds on which the writ will be applied for are to the effect that the prisoner is a subject of His Majesty the King of Italy; that the evidence adduced against him did not, according to the law of England prove that he ha "J boen convicted of an extradition crime within the jurisdiction of the Republic oE France ; and had escaped from legal confinement; that the documents produced were not properly authenticated; that His Ex celloncy Sir Jas. Prendergast exceeded his jurisdiction in admitting in evidence statements alleged to have been made by the prisoner to a police constable, inasmuch as the same were made in consequence of an inducement o£ a temporal nature having reference to an extradition charge held out to him by a porson of authority; and that it was not shown that the treaty between Her Ma jesty and lite President of the French Republic of the 14th of August 187G had not been terminated,