ITALY DROPS BID TO EXTRADITE ‘WRONG MAN’ EDMOND ARAPI

Edmond Arapi and his children

THE TELEGRAPH

The Italian authorities today abandoned a bid to extradite Edmond Arapi, a father of three, for murder after admitting they had ''got the wrong man''.

Mr Arapi was convicted by an Italian court in his absence in 2006 and sentenced to 16 years in jail for the murder of Castillo Marcello, who was stabbed to death in Genoa in October 2004. Today Mr Arapi went to the High Court in London to fight against extradition.

The 29-year-old Albanian chef, who lives in Leek, Staffordshire, knew nothing about the trial and said he had an alibi.

Jago Russell, chief executive of Fair Trials International, said: ''We are thrilled that Edmond Arapi can now wake up from the nightmare of the last year.

''His case is clear evidence that countries requesting extradition sometimes get it wrong. Italian and British authorities have taken a commonsense approach to this case.

''We hope European countries will now work together to reform the EU's fast-track extradition system to prevent similar cases of injustice in future.''