He chose not to answer the questions made by the Rome Giudice per le Indagini Preliminari (GIP – judge for preliminary investigations), on behalf of Ragusa

GIP Giuseppe Saito.

Butler did not even want to listen to the questions that were being made to him, Italian sources told The Malta Independent.

Butler, 45, of St Paul’s Bay, landed at Rome’s Fiumicino airport and was later transferred to Rebibbia.

In the next few days, he will be transferred to the prison at Contrada Pendente in Ragusa, where he will be interrogated by GIP Saito personally. A date will then be set for his trial.

Butler had been detained in the United Kingdom following his arrest on 3 April at Heathrow Airport upon his arrival from Malta on an Air Malta flight. His wife, Carmen, who had arrived together with him on the same flight, had been sent back to Malta on the first return flight.

Butler’s extradition became possible only after the UK courts in the last few days decided that there were sufficient elements to grant Butler’s extradition to Italy to face charges there.

The arrest warrant for Butler was issued on 5 October 2002 by GIP Vincenzo Ignaccolo following a request by

prosecutor Lelia Di Domenico.

A 47-year-old Tunisian man, Habib Tabbakh, was found in a grievous condition on the shore of Caucana (in the Ragusa area) the day after a landing on 4 July 2001. He died on 6 July 2001 at the Cannizzaro Hospital in Catania.

In a second landing on the shore of Randello (also in the Ragusa area), on 10 July 2001, four Iraqis were found dead on the same beach.