EDMOND ARAPI ITALY MURDER CONVICTION QUESTIONED

Edmond Arapi and his wife, Georgina, and his youngest child

BBC NEWS - DANNY SHAW

Documents seen by BBC News suggest that a man from Staffordshire, convicted of murder in Italy, was not in the country at the time. Edmond Arapi, who lives in Leek with his wife and three young children, was given a 16-year jail term in his absence.

His lawyers claim he is the victim of mistaken identity and are urging the Italian authorities to withdraw their request to extradite him.

Jago Russell, from Fair Trials International, which is backing him, said he was the victim of a "horrendous" miscarriage of justice, made possible by the European Arrest Warrant scheme.

"Fair Trial International's main concern about the European Arrest Warrant system is the lack of judicial discretion - the lack of an ability of a British court to say 'no it would be unjust to extradite somebody to another country' - and therefore to stop the extradition," he said.

"Before this system was introduced it was possible for the British government to... stop an extradition or for the British courts to do so.

"That's all gone now - the British courts in the vast majority of cases now simply have to rubberstamp requests for extradition from other European countries," Mr Russell said.