Alleged human traffickers to be extradited

A magistrate yesterday ruled he was satisfied there were enough reasons for a Maltese man and a Chinese woman to be extradited to Italy.

Magistrate Joseph Apap Bologna ordered that Carmelo Borg and Wei Wang be kept in custody to await their extradition to Italy where they are wanted in connection with the Maundy Thursday drowning of six Chinese and Mongolian illegal immigrants about 15 miles off Sicily. The immigrants were allegedly forced off a boat thought to have left from Malta.

The magistrate gave the ruling after turning down a submission raised by the defence lawyers in a previous sitting.

Lawyers Edward Zammit Lewis, José Herrera and Franco Debono had argued that the extradition proceedings against Mr Borg and Ms Wei were null and void because the court had failed to observe the procedural requisites laid down by law.

They claimed the law established phases in the proceedings. First, the law demanded that the court must decide whether the person brought before it is the person in respect of whom the proceedings have been instituted.

Once that was decided, the court must decide whether the offence specified in the warrant is an extraditable one. If the court decided in the affirmative, it must move on to decide whether or not there were legal bars to the extradition.

The lawyers argued that Magistrate Apap Bologna issued a written decree as to the identity of Mr Borg and Ms Wei but had not done the same to determine whether the offence was extraditable. This meant that the proceedings were null as such a requisite could not be rectified at this stage.

But the magistrate yesterday noted there was nothing in the law which precluded him from delivering one decree, deciding on the two issues involved, as opposed to two separate decrees and, consequently, he turned down the defence submission.

Magistrate Apap Bologna informed Mr Borg and Ms Wei that they will not be extradited before the expiration of seven days and that they could appeal to the Court of Criminal Appeal.

If they felt that their human rights had been breached, they could file a constitutional case. Mr Justice Gino Camilleri, sitting in the First Hall of the Civil Court, is tomorrow expected to decide a civil case filed by the defence team contesting the validity of the law in terms of which a European arrest warrant had been issued.

The ruling may also have a bearing on the legal validity of Magistrate Apap Bologna's decision.

Police Superintendent Peter Paul Zammit, Inspectors Christopher Pullicino, Sandro Zarb and Mario Haber prosecuted with the assistance of  Senior Counsel to the Republic Donatella Frendo Dimech.