The Italian man who last week refused to be extradited to Italy and was remanded in custody, claimed this morning that he was not being allowed to make local calls from prison.

Angelo Fregapane, 58, is wanted in Italy in connection with crimes related to fraud and misappropriation.

Between 1991 and 1999, he was the director of Cespeda, a company on which he claimed bankruptcy to defraud creditors, allegedly stealing more than one billion Italian lire.

Deputy Attorney General Donatella Frendo Dimech this morning exhibited an Italian court judgement that Mr Fregapane has to serve a jail term of eight years, 11 months and 20 days.

At the beginning of the sitting, he claimed from the dock that he was not being allowed to make calls to Malta. He said that because of this, the last time he spoke to his lawyer Pawlu Lia was on the day of his arraignment.

He said that when he asked the prison authorities why, he was told that the inspector had said he could not make phone calls.

The inspector will testify in the next sitting to clarify this issue.

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