'The Professor' Domenico Rancadore rearrested over links to Mafia

Domenico Rancadoree, who evaded Italian authorities for 20 years, has been rearrested a month after winning a battle against extradition to his native Italy

Mafia fugitive Domenico Rancadore, who last month avoided extradition to Italy has been re-arrested over his connections to the criminal gang. Officers from the Metropolitan Police's extradition unit arrested the 65-year-old in Uxbridge, west London, on Friday, after they received a new European Arrest Warrant request from Italy. It alleges that Rancadore has an ''outstanding sentence of seven years imprisonment to serve for participation in Mafia association'' between 1987 and 1995 in Palermo.

He is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Saturday. Rancadore, known as The Professor, was first arrested in August last year under a European Arrest Warrant for the same allegations, police said. He had evaded Italian authorities for 20 years, who accused him of fleeing Italy where he faced trial over his alleged Cosa Nostra "man of honour" connections.

However, he won a battle against extradition back to his native Italy last month after Senior District Judge Howard Riddle ruled that prison conditions in Rancadore's home country would breach his human rights. He was later told at another heading that he would not face an appeal against the judge's ruling. A consent order for the appeal to be withdrawn was waiting to be heard at the High Court, the hearing was told. Granting Rancadore unconditional bail, District Judge Quentin Purdy said: "You're free to go as far as this court is concerned."

The court heard the CPS lodged an appeal against the decision to refuse Rancadore's extradition but it was not served to his lawyers within the seven-day time limit. Mr Purdy said unconditional bail had been granted "as a matter of caution" until the High Court sanctions the dismissal of the appeal. Mr Riddle reversed his original decision to extradite Rancadore, who has a serious heart condition, following concerns prison conditions would breach his human rights.

Rancadore and his wife moved with their two children to Uxbridge in 1994 and lived under the name of Skinner, the maiden name of Mrs Rancadore's British mother. Police arrested "Marc Skinner" under a European arrest warrant on August 7 at the upmarket semi-detached home. At a previous hearing, Mr Rancadore said he came to the UK to give his children "a good life", and to bring his time in Italy to an end. He said the maxi-trial in which he was a defendant in the mid-1980s - involving 460 defendants, one of whom was his father - was a "terrible experience".

Asked about changing his name to Marc Skinner, he said it was to end ties with Italy, adding: "This was the only way." Rancadore said he did not even contact his mother or father back home, saying: "I wanted to end everything with Sicily."