8B
Thursday, March 9, 1995
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Murder suspect brothers extradited
The Associated Press
MIDLAND, Mich. — Two teen-age "skinhead brothers" accused of killing their parents and younger brother today waived their right to fight extradition and will be returned to Pennsylvania to face charges.
Bryan Freeman, 17, and David Freeman, 16, appeared briefly before District Judge James Wilson.
The brothers were arrested in Michigan March 1, two days after their family's bodies were found, stabbed and bludgeoned, in their home.
The hair on their once-shaved heads was beginning to grow out and conceal the tattoos "Berzerker" and "Sieg Heil" on their foreheads.
Their court-appointed attorneys said the teens were sorry about the deaths of their parents, Dennis and Brenda Freeman, and their 11-year-old brother, Erik.
Bryan Freeman's attorney, James Branson III, refused to say whether the boys had confessed to police or whether their remorse or decision to return to Pennsylvania indicated any admission of guilt.
"They simply chose to move to expedite the process, to get back home." Branson said.
Wilson said no date had been set for the transfer, but he expected it to take place within the next two weeks.
The brothers are charged in Pennsylvania with three counts each of homicide and conspiracy to commit homicide.
The Freemans' cousin, Nelson Birdwell III, waived extradition Monday but has not yet returned to Pennsylvania.
Birdwell is charged with probation violation and hindering the apprehension of his cousins. Authorities have indicated he was in the house when the family was killed, and he was arrested with his cousins.
Lawyers say they want extradition for British trader
The Associated Press
FRANKFURT, Germany — Nick Leeson's lawyers want Britain to indict the former Barings trader blamed for the bank's collapse.
They admit it's an unusual strategy.
"But it's an unusual case," attorney Eberhard Kempf said yesterday.
Extradition to Britain would get Leeson what he wanted when he was arrested March 2 at Frankfurt airport en route from Malaysia — back home to London and away from Singapore, where he could face up to seven years in prison.
In exchange, Leeson's lawyers suggested, he might give British authorities information on the role played in the bank's demise by Barings executives in London.
Singapore wants Leeson, former head of Barings' futures trading business there, on charges he forged documents showing he had money to pay for his high-stakes gamble that Tokyo's stock market would rise.
Instead, the market fell, costing Barings $1.4 billion, destroying the 223-year-old bank and stunning world stock markets. The Dutch banking and insurance company ING Group took over Barings on Monday.
Kempf said he had few good arguments to keep Leson from being sent back to Singapore.
British authorities haven't said whether they will charge Leeson.
"If there were an extradition request from Britain, it would open up all sorts of possibilities," said Stephen Pollard, a British lawyer who visited Leeson in prison. "Leeson has given us some very interesting things on what was going on in the bank until February."
German authorities could choose to grant a British request instead of Singapore's, said Frankfurt prosecutor Hans-Hermann Eckert.
Leeson's lawyers also denied that he acted for personal gain when he bet the Tokyo market's Nikkei 225 stock market index would rise.
"All he did, he did as an employee of Barings and in the interest of the bank," Pollard said.
But the lawyers wouldn't say whether Leeson denies Singapore's charges — that he forged a Wall Street executive's signature on a letter authorizing the trading and a document showing Barings had his firm's money.
Leeson's lawyers content he and his wife, Lisa, were merely going on vacation, not into hiding, when they left Singapore on Feb. 23 for Malaysia, a day before the huge trading losses became public.
They traveled on their own passports, booked tickets in their names and carried only vacation luggage.
"They left Singapore knowing there's a problem in the bank, that his trading was not successful," Pollard said. "That's why he sent a letter of resignation. He expected to get sacked."
The couple's first knowledge of the bank's collapse came from a Malaysian news report Feb. 26, Kempf said. He said they caught the first flight to Europe, where they hoped for a fairer hearing.
However, two London newspapers, the Daily Telegraph and the Guardian, reported Lisa Leeson contacted a Singapore moving company Feb. 15 to have their household goods taken to Britain.
Pollard also denied the Leesons led the life of luxury depicted by some news reports. He denied they had a yacht, and said Leeson sold his Rover car because of high maintenance costs and made much less than reported — $84,000 a year, plus a housing allowance.
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