Briton to be extradited to serve prison term, then brought back to Malta

A court today ordered the extradition of a Briton to serve a pending jail term, but said he should then be brought back to Malta for court proceedings here.

Richard Alistair Cranston, 43, from Beaconsfield in Buckinghamshire, had been on the run for two years after being convicted in Sicily of drug trafficking. He had been sentenced to three years and 19 days in jail in Sicily but was released after a year on condition he stayed in Italy. He had filed an appeal and won the right to get his passport back.

During the extradition hearing, his lawyer Veronique Dalli said the authorities in Rome knew he was in Malta.

Donatella Frendo Dimech, from the Attorney General’s Office, said that had the Italian authorities known where he was, they would not have issued a European arrest warrant against him two years ago.

Magistrate Joseph Apap Bologna ruled that Mr Cranston is to be returned to Italy to serve the remainder of his term and then returned to Malta to continue undergoing proceedings in Malta on drug related charges.