Man feared for his life if extradited to Malta

A man who was extradited to Malta from the UK to face charges of misappropriation and fraud of some €116,000 appeared before the Maltese courts today.

The defence counsel revealed that the accused, David Coleiro, had resisted extradition  because he feared for his life should be be brought to Malta. He had even been threatened in a UK prison, where he was being held on remand.

When testifying in Westminister, Coleiro had said that while in Malta, he owed money to a criminal gang which included Il-Bona.

He struggled to repay this debt and as a result has suffered emotionally and financially, He took on extra work to pay off what he owed and had been threatened repeatedly by the members of the gang.

He said that there was a real risk of him being injured or even killed by the members of the gang if he was to return to Malta, and the Maltese authorities were unable to protect him. The gang, he claimed, had contacts within the prison including people who worked as prison guards and also inmates.

A witness, Richard Murkin, a former bank branch manager, said he had engaged Mr Coleiro to do some tiling work at his sister's home in the UK. He overheard a telephone conversion between Mr Coleiro and an unknown person, during which, he said, he heard threats to kill Mr Coleiro. Mr Coleiro appeared to be visibly frightened.

Mr Coleiro also presented four sworn statements by friends and relatives confirming the threats.

The main protagonist of these threats, he told the court, was Anthony Borg (Il-Bona) who was subsequently killed (in Marsaxlokk) in 2010.

The UK judge, John Zani, said he had been shown newspaper cuttings which appeared to show that Borg  was a ruthless money lender involved in criminal activities with others.

The issue, he said, was whether the Maltese authoirities could protect Mr Coleiro in the event of extradition.

He said he was of the opinion that Mr Coleiro had failed to prove to the court that extradition would put him at a real risk, or that he would be subject to inhumane or degrading treatment.

The judge said he found the assurances given by the Maltese authorities regarding security as satisfactory. He, therefore, authorised the extradition to Malta and added that should Mr Coleiro be convicted in Malta, the 15 months spent in remand in the UK would be deducted from his prison time.

During today's proceedings, defence counsel Giannella Caruana Curran and Joe Giglio requested bail and said their client was at risk of being attacked.

Magistrate Audrey Demicoli turned down the bail request, saying it was too early in the proceedings.

Mr Coleiro was first arraigned in Malta in 2006. At the time, Inspector Ian Abdilla said police investigations showed that Coleiro had approached a series of companies with a Chinese man in a bid to sell them products which were meant to be imported. In the meantime, the same companies were approached by Raymond Debono who told them that he had Libyan clients, who would buy the products Coleiro wanted to sell them.