BORDEAUX France AP American fugitive Ira Einhorn appeared in court Tuesday for a hearing to determine whether he'll be extradited to the United States for the brutal 1977 murder of his girlfriend. The court said it would rule on Jan. 12. Einhorn 57 has been sentenced in absentia to life in prison by a Pennsylvania court for the murder of Helen ``Holly'' Maddux a crime he denies even though police found her corpse stuffed in a trunk in his closet. A prominent anti-war campaigner and New Age activist in the 1960s Einhorn fled the United States shortly before he was due to be tried. But after 16 years in hiding he was tracked down and arrested at his French home in June 1997. Einhorn entered the court building Tuesday holding hands with his companion Anika Flodin and refused to answer questions. But the victim's sister Elisabeth Hall accompanied by other family members was more outspoken. ``We are here in France to remind the judges that underneath all this international law and political squabbling there is a person who was murdered and who looks like us'' Hall said. ``Anybody can see there has been a definite undercurrent of anti-Americanism'' she said. After a French court refused to extradite Einhorn in December 1997 citing a French law that would have required a retrial if he was extradited Pennsylvania passed a law promising Einhorn a retrial. He was re-arrested in September. His defense lawyers argue that if extradited Einhorn could face the death penalty which is banned under French law. They also claim Pennsylvania courts might withdraw the pledge of a retrial. In a November interview on ABC television Einhorn proclaimed his innocence and claimed the CIA or KGB framed him after he uncovered classified mind-control experiments. When Maddux a former cheerleader from Tyler Texas disappeared Einhorn said she had gone shopping and never returned. But when neighbors 18 months later told police of a stench coming from Einhorn's apartment her battered remains were found. Forensic experts said her skull had been smashed six times. ip-jn-parf APW19981201.0820.txt.body.html APW19981201.1429.txt.body.html