Court says it cannot decide on couple's request to wed

A magistrate yesterday ruled he did not have the competence to decide on a request by a French couple in preventive custody to get married.

Magistrate Joseph Apap Bologna said that, although there was no doubt the couple had the right to get married, he agreed with the Attorney General's Office he did not have the competence to decide upon the request.

Alain Schmitt, 49, who heads a French sect, and his 47-year-old fiancée, Laurence Liegeois, had a European arrest warrant issued against them after they allegedly evaded custody following convictions in France for torture and kidnapping, among other things. They are now undergoing extradition proceedings.

Their lawyer, Emmy Bezzina, yesterday insisted that if Mr Schmitt was sent back to France it would be a definite death sentence for him due to the type 1 diabetes he suffered.

He said his client had already spent two months in prison under preventive arrest in France and Maltese prisons were a "five-star hotel" compared to those in France.

At this point, the magistrate reminded Dr Bezzina that he was speaking about a European country where prisons could not be that bad as he was describing them.

This was not the first time the defence had made such allegations during the proceedings and the lawyer insisted yesterday that his clients were being persecuted by the French government because of its "obsession with sects".