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Domenico Rancadore: Mafia boss dubbed 'The Professor' wins extradition battle
Domenico Rancadore: Sicilian Mafia boss dubbed 'The Professor' can stay in London after winning extradition battle
(about 4 hours later)
A convicted Mafia fugitive known as 'The Professor' will not be extradited back to Italy, Westminster Magistrates' Court has ruled.
A Sicilian Mafia boss who evaded Italian justice for two decades while hiding out in west London has returned to suburban living after a court ruled against extraditing him.
Domenico Rancadore was arrested after evading Italian authorities for 20 years.
Domenico Rancadore, 65, was told that he could remain with his family in Britain despite being pursued to serve a seven-year jail sentence in his native Italy for being the head of a Mafia family who had taken a kickback from a government contract.
They accused him of fleeing Italy as he faced trial over his alleged Cosa Nostra "man of honour" connections.
Senior district judge Howard Riddle said he was bound by a higher court’s ruling that Mr Rancadore faced inhuman and degrading treatment in the Italian prison system. In an original draft of his judgment, Mr Riddle, at Westminster magistrates’ court, said he found the European arrest warrant was valid and that extradition was “compatible with the defendant’s convention rights, including prison conditions”.
District judge Howard Riddle said a recent decision of the Administrative Court, which binds lower courts in England, had led to his decision.
But on Monday the judge changed his decision following a ruling in a similar case in Italy. A court in Florence found there was an insufficient assurance that if another defendant was returned to Italy he would not face the risk of being exposed to prison conditions that would breach his human rights. Lower courts in England are bound by this verdict.
Mr Rancadore, who had been living in a quiet west London suburb, was convicted in 1999 of Mafia association and extortion in Trabia, near Palermo, and is wanted to serve a seven-year jail sentence.
Mr Rancadore was bailed while Italian authorities appeal.
In a statement outside the court Mr Rancadore's solicitor, Karen Totner, claimed her client had been 'misrepresented by the press': "He made a deliberate decision 20 years ago to walk away from the Mafia and all that is associated with it", she said.
Prisons in the country were so dire that the Italian President last year called for immediate action from parliament owing to the “very many violations on the ban of inhuman and degrading treatment”.
"He has led a blame-free existence in the United Kingdom where he has resided peacefully with his wife and family."
Mr Rancadore, who was on an electronic tag on Monday, has been held in custody for months and left court with his face covered.
She added: "I suspect that this case is not yet over but I hope that this judgment is an indication of a successful final outcome."
Mr Rancadore’s 1998 trial in Italy, held in his absence, heard from witnesses who gave evidence of their involvement in Mafia crime including extortion and murder. Mr Rancadore was described as the head of the Trabia Mafia family and was seen as an important reference point for the people at the top of the organisation.
She added that Mr Rancadore, who had been living in Uxbridge, has a "serious heart condition so being in prison is very difficult for him".
As a “man of honour” – a member of the Sicilian Mafia – his role implied an obligation “to increase the ability of the family to subtly and violently infiltrate the social fabric”, according to Judge Riddle’s ruling.
Judge Riddle told the court today that his original decision was to extradite Mr Rancadore, who has a serious heart condition.
In 1999, two years were knocked off the sentence because of a lack of information about his “prominent position within the organisation, and his involvement in serious crimes of violence”.
In an original draft, Mr Riddle said he included that he was satisfied the European Arrest Warrant was valid and that extradition was "compatible with the defendant's Convention rights, including prison conditions".
He had been acquitted of Mafia association in the Maxi trial in 1987, when hundreds of Mafia men were convicted.
However, in a dramatic turnaround, the judge said he changed his mind following the ruling in a similar case involving the Court of Florence and Hayle Abdi Badre at the Royal Courts of Justice last week.
Mr Rancadore claimed to have fled Sicily in 1994 and changed his name to avoid his family’s Mafia associations. “He made a deliberate decision 20 years ago to walk away from the Mafia and all that is associated with it,” said Karen Todner, for the defence.
That judgement stated that there was an insufficient assurance that if Badre was returned to Italy he would not face "the risk of being exposed to prison conditions that would breach his Article 3 rights".
“He has led a blame-free existence in the United Kingdom where he has resided peacefully with his wife and family.” He lived in Britain without trace for 20 years,under the name Marc Skinner. He and his wife, Ann, the daughter of an Italian consul, their daughter Daniela, 34, and son Giuseppe, 36, changed their surnames to Skinner, his mother-in-law’s maiden name.
Judge Riddle said today: "The judgement of the administrative court is binding on me.
Mr Rancadore did not work, he had no national insurance number or passport and his home was in his wife’s name. He was arrested last year during a police raid.
"The higher court accepted that a similar assurance given in that case was in good faith, but was not sufficient."
His daughter, Daniela, said that she believed a former boyfriend told the police that her father had been convicted in Italy for Mafia association.
He added: "I cannot distinguish this case from Badre.
"While it is true that I heard more up-to-date evidence than was available to the court in that case, my intended decision, as expressed above, was based squarely on my acceptance of an assurance that has recently, and in similar circumstances, been rejected by a higher court."
In the case of Badre, the written judgement said: "...the assurance in this case is insufficient to persuade me that, if the Appellant were returned to Italy, he would not face the risk of being exposed to prison conditions that would breach his Article 3 rights."
Two European arrest warrants were issued for Rancadore last August, and his counsel, Alun Jones QC, told a previous hearing that the difference between them was significant.
Mr Jones said the level of crime had been elevated in the second warrant, adding that it was a "deliberate decision taken to prejudice this man's rights".
Today, Mr Jones described the second arrest warrant as "dramatic" and "lurid".
At a previous hearing, Mr Rancadore said he came to the UK to give his children "a good life", and to bring his time in Italy to an end.
He said the maxi-trial in which he was a defendant in the mid-1980s - involving 460 defendants, one of whom was his father - was a "terrible experience". He said he was looked upon differently afterwards, even though he returned to work as a teacher.
He added: "I was a little bit worried that they would arrest me again."
Asked about changing his name to Marc Skinner, he said it was to end ties with Italy, adding: "This was the only way."
Mr Rancadore said he did not even contact his mother or father back home, saying: "I wanted to end everything with Sicily."
He wanted to be "away from the atmosphere", and said he was "under stress all the time" when he was there. Mr Rancadore added: "I try to live the best I can."
