Former Wallabies star Rocky Elsom flees Ireland amid fears of extradition

He told Sydney Morning Herald all he could report about his whereabouts was that he was no longer in Ireland.

“All I can say is that I spoke to the police and they said if I was in Ireland they would have to pick me up,” Elsom said. “So I told them I’m not in Ireland and I’m not going to be in Ireland any time soon.”

He also did not tell how he left the country, but Sydney Morning Herald suggests the only way he could have avoided being apprehended would have been to cross the border into Northern Ireland, which is an hour’s drive from Dublin.

Elsom, who was in Narbonne from 2013 to 2016, was convicted in absentia and an international warrant was issued for his arrest. He was also ordered to repay 700,000 euros ($1.25 million).

He told Sydney Morning Herald he is ready to answer the accusations. He is adamant that they are not accumulating and that this is an unjustified attempt to make him responsible for the club’s finances.

He said he was aware of traditional delays in the French legal system and feared he would be detained in France for a long time pending an appeal. He said it was only this week that he received documents detailing the charges against him.

Elsom is laying low while he hires a French lawyer to appeal the conviction against him in the Narbonne criminal court – a hearing is scheduled for November 15.

“I’ll have to go outside at some point, but I’m keeping my head down, that’s for sure,” he said. “I just need to try to normalize it to some extent… be able to get enough sunlight or do some exercise. Because this is the first month. In some ways, the attack on me has been going on for eight years, so you wouldn’t believe it would go on for months and months,” Elsom told the magazine. Sydney Morning Herald.

He said he was shocked to learn he was being put on trial and could not defend himself.

“Not informing me, not allowing me to be there, running a rumor campaign for eight years… the most disturbing thing is to think that it was intentional… that it was done deliberately to make my life difficult,” he said. .

“It’s important to remember that if I’m in custody, my defense becomes much more expensive and more difficult. If I get detained, I’ll have to hire a lawyer to do everything for me… all the phone conversations, trying to find documents, talking to people, trying to defend myself.”

He told Sydney Morning Herald he hoped the Australian government would look into his case.

“If an Australian citizen is unlikely to get a fair trial in a foreign country, then at the very least I think they have a responsibility to look into the matter,” he said.