A lawyer from the Attorney General's Office yesterday said a marriage request by a French couple facing extradition charges was nothing but a "ruse" intended to stall proceedings.

In a passionate plea, she said she would no longer be an "accomplice" in misleading the court, referring to submissions made by the defence lawyer of the French couple.

The duo, Alain Schmitt, the 49-year-old spiritual leader of a French sect, and his 47-year-old fiancée, Laurence Liegeois had a European Arrest Warrant issued against them after they allegedly evaded custody following convictions in France for torture and kidnapping, among other things.

During extradition proceedings, defence counsel Emmy Bezzina claimed the couple was being mistreated by the police and that Mr Schmitt, a diabetic, had a gushing wound in his foot that needed urgent medication.

These claims were shot down and a medical expert testified that the wound Dr Bezzina had talked about was nothing but a bunion.

Dr Bezzina filed a request last Friday for the couple to get married, saying he would be their best man. In jest, lawyer Donatella Frendo Dimech from the Attorney General's office, offered to be the flower girl. However, judging by her stand during yesterday's sitting, she seemed to have stopped seeing the funny side of the request, insisting that the "wedding is nothing more than a stunt as a last resort".

Dr Bezzina argued that the right to marriage was a human right and that no-one was going to deny the couple such right.

Dr Frendo Dimech rebutted, noting there was no evidence of any intention to marry before last Friday.

The parties also disputed whether the couple could be extradited on convictions that were made in absentia. But Magistrate Joseph Apap Bologna ruled that the convictions were in fact extraditable offences and said he would give a decree on the wedding this morning.