Is Kilgore one of many?

Published Nov 12, 2002

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The tracing and arrest of American fugitive James Kilgore seems to be just the tip of an iceberg - there could be many other fugitives from justice hiding in and around Cape Town.

Since the arrival of German fugitive Jurgen Harksen into the city in 1994, Cape Town has become a haven for international fugitives.

Police are not certain how many, but suspect there could be several more around. The amount of fugitives could also be on the increase.

Sources said it was easy to enter this country because in many cases South African authorities did not ask for a clearance certificate.

The certificate meant that the applicant's fingerprints were taken and checked to see whether the person was wanted by Interpol, the country the person came from, or even in South Africa.

When a wanted person is found to have moved from one country to another the matter is handed over to Interpol.

Once a country's police receive information about the person's whereabouts, Interpol is immediately tipped off.

Sources said the tracing and arrest of a wanted person in Cape Town, or any other part of the country, usually came about through information received.

Information about Kilgore's whereabouts in Claremont filtered through to America's Federal Bureau of Investigations, allegedly supplied to Interpol by some of his friends living in America.

They apparently knew of the upcoming court trials faced by several of Kilgore's former gang co-members.

Four of Kilgore's former Symbionese Liberation Army partners were sentenced last week for a range of crimes, such as bank robberies, committed in the mid-1970s in the United States.

On Monday Kilgore appeared in the Wynberg Magistrate's Court to cries of "Viva John!"

Kilgore, 55, who has lived here as a respected University of Cape Town researcher and prominent left-wing critic Dr John Pape, was the last fugitive member of one of America's most infamous terror gangs, the Symbionese Liberation Army.

Anthony Stephen, from the local directorate for public prosecutions, told magistrate Hafisa Mohamed that he and Michael Evans, for Kilgore, had agreed Kilgore fulfilled the requirements in terms of Section 7(ii) of the Extraditions Act that allowed for him to be detained for longer than the customary 48 hours.

Mohamed postponed the matter to Friday.

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