A magistrate yesterday turned down a request to declare the proceedings for the extradition of Italian Mafia boss Sebastiano Brunno null.

Mr Brunno’s lawyers made the request on Monday after the defence argued that the Catania judicial authorities had based their application for the extradition on a judgment that “did not exist”.

Magistrate Aaron Bugeja ruled that “substance should prevail over formalities” and, even though there had been a mistake in some documents, the bottom line was that Mr Brunno was wanted after being convicted in Italy for murder and possession of weapons.

The 56-year-old was arrested in 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.

Deputy Attorney General Donatella Frendo Dimech said the Catania authorities had written to their Maltese counterparts that Mr Brunno was wanted to serve time in jail over a murder in April 1992 and for weapon possession.

The Italians had previously said they also wanted Mr Brunno over an attempted murder but it now emerged that a conviction on this crime had been overturned at appeal stage.

There was also a discrepancy in the punishment. While officially it was 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 and the former was the one amended on appeal.

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

However, Dr Frendo Dimech pointed out that the crimes for which Mr Brunno was wanted were in the original request, so everything still stood.

The magistrate ruled that the Italian and Maltese authorities’ mistake was to attribute to Mr Brunno more than he had actually been found guilty of (the attempted murder). However, the magistrate added he could not ignore that the judgment included in the extradition proceedings confirmed that the accused had been found guilty of murder and weapon possession and that it listed the punishment he was handed down.

The court therefore turned down the plea by the defence to declare the extradition request null and ordered the continuation of the proceedings.