Court Opens Way to Extradite Argentine

SAN FRANCISCO —  A federal appeals court on Friday opened the way for former Argentine Gen. Carlos Suarez Mason to be extradited to his homeland where he faces trial for the murders of 39 countrymen during the so-called “dirty war.”

Acting with unusual speed, Judges Harry Pregerson and Alfred Goodwin of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals let stand an order issued Wednesday by District Judge Lowell Jensen that Suarez Mason be extradited. The appellate court had received Suarez Mason’s emergency stay request late Thursday.

“I expect the warrant of surrender (directing that he be extradited) to be signed in reasonably short order,” said Assistant U.S. Atty. Mark Zanides, who represented Argentina in its effort to have the general returned.

Extradition proceedings can languish in the courts for months, even years. But the action Friday appeared to leave Suarez Mason’s attorneys with little recourse in the judicial system.

“I find that shocking,” Dennis Natali, a lawyer for the retired general, said of the court’s surprisingly quick action.

The State Department has final say over Suarez Mason’s return to Argentina, where he faces trial for the murders committed by subordinates between 1976 and 1979. If he is convicted, he could be sentenced to life imprisonment. The final State Department decision to return him “could be made within a few weeks,” Zanides said.

Suarez Mason, 64, fled Argentina in 1983 after the civilian government of Raul Alfonsin took control from the military leaders who had ruled the country since 1976. He was arrested last January at Argentina’s request in the San Francisco suburb of Foster City.