A 27-year-old Polish man wanted for the gruesome murder of a woman in Poland is to be extradited after he did not contest the European arrest warrant proceedings in the Maltese law courts yesterday.

He will be extradited within the next 10 days and will be kept at the Corradino Correctional Facility until he is accompanied back to his country by Polish authorities.

Cajetan Poznanski was arrested at Valletta City Gate on Wednesday. He is wanted for questioning on the murder of a 30-year-old woman on 3 February. The woman, identified only as Catherine (Katarzyna J), was Mr Poznanski’s Italian teacher. He is understood to have baited her into giving him lessons in Italian and then killed her at her apartment with a Samurai sword.

Poznanski escaped from Poland and travelled to Germany and Italy before taking a ferry to Malta on 9 February. Polish police sought the assistance of the Maltese police in their search. The proceedings were carried out in English, which Mr Poznanski fully understands.

The accused confirmed that the prosecution gave him a copy of the arrest warrant in Polish and English and that he was advised of his rights.

He said he was fully aware of the consequences as he had been informed that he is wanted by Polish authorities in connection with a crime. He reconfirmed his consent to the extradition when asked by the court for a second time.

"I do consent," he replied.

Poznanski admitted to charges of filing a fake report to obtain a passport and of carrying a weapon. The court, presided by Magistrate Francesco Depasquale, sentenced him to a term of imprisonment of three months suspended for two years.  

It is understood that Poznanski was an intern at Politika newspaper in Warsaw, where he pitched a story about cannibalism. The Polish press reported that Poznanski met his victim, a teacher of Italian, at a library, where he allegedly arranged to have her given him lessons in the language. When he arrived at her apartment for the lesson, he committed the alleged murder, reportedly with a Samurai sword.

He was said to have placed her severed head in his rucksack and the rest of her dismembered body in a suitcase, which he transported back to his apartment in a taxi. Arriving at his Zoliborz apartment, he is believed to have dismembered her body with a sword. He has been described as being obsessed with the fictional movie character Hannibal Lecter, a cannibal who appeared in a series of movies starting with The Silence of the Lambs.

He was also described as a Samurai sword collector, a very private and intelligent individual, with a love of ancient poetry, much like the fictional Dr Lecter. After dismembering the body, he is understood to have set his house on fire to try and erase any traces of the crime. The victim’s charred remains were found by firefighters.

He was also featured on Europol’s Most Wanted website, where he was chillingly described as having black eyes, with the public being warned not to approach him for any reason.