Court orders re-arrest of bailed extraditee

A court has revoked an order granting bail to a man who had been extradited to Malta on the strength of two European Arrest Warrants and ordered his re-arrest.

26 year-old London resident Oliver Vella had been arrested in the UK and brought to Malta to face criminal proceedings over a 2004 cocaine trafficking case.

Vella had left Malta for the UK while proceedings against him were still underway, resulting in the case being put on hold for almost ten years until he could traced and arrested by British police and subsequently extradited to Malta.

Earlier this week, he had pleaded guilty to the charges before magistrate Natasha Galea Sciberras and had been granted bail pending a pre-sentencing report, after Vella’s defence lawyers Michael and Lucio Sciriha had told the court that their client had turned over a new leaf.

The prosecution had not objected to bail at the time and Vella had been granted bail against a personal guarantee of €15,000, as well as being ordered to sign the bail book twice a day.

However the Attorney General filed an urgent request to have Vella’s bail revoked, citing insufficient guarantees that the accused would not abscond, arguing that the accused was living in a hotel in Sliema and had no ties to the island.

This afternoon, Judge Edwina Grima, acting on the urgent application, ordered that Vella be re-arrested.