Extradition case against ailing Italian fugitive set to begin

Italian Leone Alberto Fulvio at Mombasa Law Courts, yesterday. He is wanted by Interpol to serve eight years in jail for drugs-related charges and the High Court in Mombasa has ruled that extradition proceedings against him should proceed despite his ill health. (PHOTO: OMONDI ONYANGO/ STANDARD)

The High Court in Mombasa has ruled that extradition proceedings against an Italian fugitive should proceed despite his ill health.

Leone Alberto Fulvio has lived as a free man in Kenya since 1993 despite an eight year conviction in Italy for drugs related charges.

Lady Justice Dorcas Chepkwony also ruled that Fulvio, 67, who was arrested on September 26 after Interpol and Italian authorities blew his cover, should be held under armed guard at Oasis Medical Centre in Kilifi County to enable him recover sufficiently for the extradition proceedings to start.

The Italian was presented to the public for the first time yesterday briefly following a Tuesday order by the judge. His lawyer Gikandi Ngibuini’s application for bond was rejected by Lady Justice Chepkwony who said she had no jurisdiction to hear the same when the matter was properly before the magistrate’s court.

“I do not know why this man was arrested. What I know is that the police want him to go under the process of extraditionand as such I cannot make any other order apart from what I said on Tuesday that once the doctor certifies he has recovered he can now be taken to the court having jurisdiction to hear extradition proceedings against him,” she said.

Fulvio, who was aided by two armed policemen and his daughter, sat in the open court briefly before he was ushered into the judge’s chamber for the proceedings.

“What I know is that this man is under arrest and whoever arrested him had a reason and that is why he should go back to the hospital he was under arrest and wait for the process of extradition in the magistrate’s court,” the judge ruled.

Interpol and Italian prosecutors want Fulvio extradited to Torino in Italy to start serving a sentence of 8 years, 9 months and 18 days imposed by a court on January 29 1992.

Police and Immigration officials’ conduct in this case is now a matter of concern following revelations that apart from not serving his sentence, he fled to Kenya in 1993, renounced Italian citizenship on December 15 2009, became a Kenyan citizen and acquired Identity Card Number 28622187.

Certificate of good conduct

The police certificate of good conduct issued on January 20 states that Kenyan Criminal Investigation Department CID issued it after finding that Fulvio’s fingerprints did not turn up any criminal record after being run through CID’s database.

But an affidavit sworn by Chief Inspector of Police John Lelei attached to Interpol in Nairobi on October 5 shows that “in the course of my duties at Interpol bureau in Nairobi I got information that one Alberto Fulvio was wanted in Italy and a Red Notice had been published in the Interpol website.”

Lelei swears the Red Notice was published on January 29 and also discloses that “the process on his naturalisation as a Kenyan citizen and subsequent issuance of National ID no 28622187 is under active investigation to establish whether any crimes were committed in issuance of the same.”

A separate document presented in court yesterday shows that Kenya Revenue Authority certified Fulvio as tax compliant and granted him a certificate on February 2 which shows he had a postal address in Ukunda, Kwale.

And yesterday his daughter Samantha Domique Leone who has lived with him for sometime filed an affidavit in the High Court in Mombasa showing that the fugitive is held by police at a clinic in Mtwapa.

She also claimed that police who arrested her father took away his “passport but did not take away...[the]...gun and the firearm certificate....”

She swore that the certificate of good conduct was also not taken

Meanwhile documents from Interpol and Kenyan state officials show that Fulvio renounced Italian citizenship at the Italian consulate in Mombasa on December 15, 2009.

The fugitive, reportedly, received a firearms certificate from from the Chief Licencing Officer on May 4 2012.

The firearms certificate number 7680 shows he held a Kenyan ID issued on May 5 2011 in Kisauni area of Mombasa.

But the Senior Assistant Director of Public Prosecution Alex Muteti insisted that Fulvio is a fugitive wanted in Italy.