Jailed for 22 years in Italy and brought to serve term in Malta, claims illegal detention

A Maltese man who was sentenced to 22 years in jail by an Italian court for the murder of migrants as he illegally transported them to Sicily in 2001, and subsequently brought to Malta to serve time at Corradino Prisons as part of a prisoner exchange, has filed a judicial protest this morning urging authorities to cut the red tape and release him in compliance with pardons and reduced time he was given in Italy.

49 year-old Carmelo Butler, who is from St. Paul's Bay, was brought to Malta last June to serve his time at Corradino Prisons as part of a prisoner exchange.

He was arrested at Gatwick Airport together with his wife in June 2004 on the strength of an Interpol arrest warrant and taken to a West Essex jail until he was extradited to Syracuse where he subsequently faced trial and was found guilty of murdering a Tunisian migrant in 2006.

Lawyer Edward Gatt, who signed the judicial protest for Carmelo Butler, argued that his client had benefitted from a general pardon granted by the Republic of Italy to hundreds of inmates, while also benefitting from remission on time already served.

He stressed that technically his client has already served his time in jail, and should be released.

However, given that the matter involves a lot of red tape given that documents must arrive from Italy's Justice Ministry, that his client is being held in prison illegally.

He urged the prison authorities to release Butler from prison without any delay, and was holding them responsible at law for what he described as "abusive and illegal arrest."

The case

Butler's conviction was based on evidence given in Syracuse by Tunisian national Monia Fekih, sister-in-law to the the victim, 47-year-old Habib Tabbakh, identified Butler as the man who had hit Tabbakh with an oar on his head when he refused to jump off the speed boat which took him to Sicily.

Butler had ordered Tabbakh, who did not know how to swim, and 10 other illegal immigrants to jump off the boat a few hundred metres away from the shore of Caucana, on the Sicilian coast.

Other evidence was given by Zina Ben Said (known as Zina Grima), the Tunisian woman who went to Italy and turned herself in to the police.