Chief Prosecutor Francisco Dall'Anese unexpectedly stepped in to prevent the extradition of Nicole Kater, a U.S. mother accused of international kidnapping.

Saying Kater's rights had been violated, Dall'Anese filed a writ of habeas corpus with the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court (Sala IV) yesterday to remand Kater's case to the Criminal Court of Puntarenas where the case was first heard.

Police arrested Kater, 28, in April, after an investigation by the U.S. Bureau of Diplomatic Security, Interpol and Costa Rican police. Kater fled here with her daughter three years ago during a custody dispute with the child's father, John Gehl, in Humboldt, California.

In August 2005, the Humboldt County Superior Court ordered Kater not to leave the county until a scheduled hearing on the case could occur.

Twelve days before the hearing, however, Kater flew to Costa Rica with her daughter. The United States issued an arrest warrant in December 2005, and the California court awarded Gehl custody. A judge from the San José court for childhood and adolescence awarded Gehl custody this September.

The Chief Prosecutor's Office and the Costa Rican National Institute for Women (INAMU), however, both say that Kater had Gehl's signed authorization to travel here, and that the mother and daughter entered Costa Rica legally, settling in Cóbano, on the southern tip of the Nicoya Peninsula.

Kater has been held in San José's Buen Pastor Prison since her arrest in April.

In September, the Criminal Court of Puntarenas turned down the U.S.'s request to extradite Kater. The U.S. Embassy appealed that decision to the San Ramón Court of Appeals, which last week voted to overturn the Puntarenas court's decision, clearing the way for Kater's extradition.

But yesterday, Dall'Anese personally filed a habeas corpus writ, saying the appeals court had violated Kater's rights by not offering her due process to counter the San Ramón court's decision. He has now asked Sala IV to send the case back to the Puntarenas court. “The American Convention on Human Rights upholds the right to all accused to challenge any sentence against them before a higher court,” said Dall'Anese in a press release.

Fabián Barrantes, a Judicial Branch spokesman, said he has never seen a chief prosecutor intervene on behalf of a foreigner in an extradition case.