Two men whom the court ruled were to be extradited to Italy and Belgium yesterday, challenged the validity of the European arrest warrants issued against them.

Carmelo Borg and Serge Geryl were to be extradited to Italy and Belgium respectively. In an application they both filed in court, they both claimed the warrants were null and void.

Borg is to be extradited in connection with the deaths of nine irregular immigrants who drowned after being pushed into the sea near Pozzallo, Sicily.

Geryl, on the other hand, is to serve a ten-year jail sentence for armed robbery in Belgium.

He had been living in Malta for four years.