Maltese wanted in Italy arrested at Gatwick

Carmelo Butler, of St Paul's Bay, was arrested yesterday morning at Gatwick Airport and taken to a West Essex jail, according to reports. Butler is being extradited to Italy, where he is facing charges connected with the illegal trafficking of immigrants and the death of some of them.

Butler was arrested together with his wife as they were about to board a plane at Gatwick. The two were questioned by police following an Interpol operation. Butler is accused of being involved in various tragedies in which immigrants lost their lives.

This is not the first time Butler has faced charges of trafficking. In 2001, Butler, Mahmoud Abdalla Farag, Hayat Attard, Fatiha Khallouf and Anthony Gauci of Attard were charged with aiding and abetting immigrants attempting to leave the country clandestinely. All pleaded not guilty.

A Tunisian immigrant claimed he paid Lm667 and Lm45 to be taken to Sicily by sea in a bid to join his family in France eventually. A compatriot claimed he paid Lm273 for the same trip and claimed he saw the money change hands. Another 11 immigrants had testified in this case.

All the people charged were acquitted in 2002 after a magistrate ruled they had only been planning to commit the crime and this was done before conspiracy was introduced as a crime in the Immigration Act. Although the defendants pleaded not guilty, evidence suggested otherwise. However, the court had no alternative but to acquit the accused of complicity, since the elements of the crime they had committed did not constitute complicity but conspiracy.