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U.S. fugitive Ira Einhorn was spending what could be one of his last days in France at home in his southwestern village, apparently planning a "barbecue" for supporters to pass the time before getting final word on his extradition. The European Court of Human Rights is to announce Thursday whether it will hear an appeal by Einhorn, who was convicted in absentia in the United States of the gruesome 1977 bludgeoning murder of his girlfriend.

On Wednesday, Einhorn remained mostly inside his home, a converted stone windmill in the village of Champagne-Mouton. He told The Associated Press earlier this week he was planning a sort of "Last Supper" barbecue in his backyard to pass the time. It was not clear if he would actually hold the barbecue.

He left the home in the afternoon and told reporters he was going to see some friends. He was followed by two cars of police, who guard him constantly.

After losing his final French appeal against extradition last Thursday, the former anti-war activist slit his throat in a dramatic gesture of protest. But he was not seriously injured, and he returned home later in the day after receiving outpatient treatment. His neck is still bandaged.

France had been preparing to extradite him immediately, but agreed to wait a week until the European court examined the case.

The court could now ask France to again postpone the extradition, or it could decline to intervene any further.

Einhorn, 61, said Sunday that he and his wife, Annika Flodin-Einhorn, were clearing their home of breakables so supporters could camp out there.

"We`re opening the house and we`ll have a big barbecue," he told the AP in a telephone interview. The barbecue was also meant to celebrate his wife`s 50th birthday.

The former hippie and anti-war activist fled the United States in 1981, soon before he was to stand trial for the murder of Holly Maddux. Her battered corpse was found stuffed in a trunk inside a closet of the Philadelphia apartment the couple shared.

He lived in England, Ireland and Sweden under pseudonyms before he was arrested in France in 1997.

Einhorn, a prominent 1960s antiwar activist, maintains he was framed by the CIA and has adamantly denied killing Maddux.

If he is returned to Pennsylvania, Einhorn would face a new trial.

A 1998 Pennsylvania law provided for a retrial, and U.S. officials promised that Einhorn would not be eligible for the death penalty because capital punishment was not legal in that state at the time of the crime. European Union countries generally refuse to extradite suspects who face the death penalty.

(Copyright 2001 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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Author: 6 ABC - Action News