Catania judicial authorities seeking the extradition of Mafia boss Sebastiano Brunno have amended the reasons for their request, leading the defence to ask the court to nullify the arrest warrant and subsequent court action.

News of the corrections emerged in court yesterday as extradition proceedings against Mr Brunno continued.

The 56-year-old Italian Mafia boss had been arrested in broad daylight on the streets of Buġibba on October 2, five years after the Sicilian police mounted an extensive manhunt for him.

He is known as the head of the Nardo Cosca, a branch of the Sicilian Cosa Nostra.

The arrest followed an international investigation coordinated by the Catania anti-Mafia unit with the Maltese CID and Drug Squad.

Authorities swooped after months of intense monitoring.

Before Magistrate Aaron Bugeja, Deputy Attorney General Donatella Frendo Dimech said the Catania authorities had written to their Maltese counterparts that Mr Brunno is wanted to serve time in jail over a murder committed in April 1992 and for possession of weapons.

The Italians had previously said they also wanted Mr Brunno over attempted murder but it now emerged that there had never been a judgment on this crime.

They also realised there was a discrepancy in the actual punishment: while the official one was of life imprisonment with six months in solitary confinement, the extradition documents sent to Malta by the Italians spoke about one year in solitary confinement.

The latter was the original sentence while the former was the one amended on appeal.

Lawyers Roberto Montalto and Michaela Spiteri argued that this nullified the arrest warrant signed by Magistrate Tonio Micallef Trigona, as well as subsequent court proceedings.

But Dr Frendo Dimech hit back, saying the crimes for which he is wanted were in the original request so everything still held.

Magistrate Bugeja postponed the case to this afternoon for a decision.