French couple's request for bail turned down

The appeals court has turned down a request by a French couple to be granted bail while they appeal from an extradition order.

Alan Schmitt and Laurence Liegeois are fighting an extradition order issued by the Magistrates Court with an appeal based mainly on Mr Schmitt's medical condition. He suffers from type 1 diabetes and is 98 per cent blind.

Defence counsel Emmy Bezzina, who had filed the request for bail, had argued that Alan Schmitt seemed to have suffered a stroke and "only just escaped death". He also argued that Liegeois, a qualified nurse specialising in diabetes, was best suited to look after him.

Chief Justice Vincent DeGaetano in a decree said that Mr Schmitt's medical condition was not as alarming as it was being made out to be, and he was receiving adequate medical attention in the detention section of Mt Carmel Hospital. There was also, therefore, no need for him to be tended by Ms Liegeois.

With regard to the care of their son, the Court said he was being cared for by the couple's friends but he was sending a copy of this decree to the Ministry of Social Policy to make the necessary arrangements to ensure the boy was well looked after.