A bid by US fugitive Nicholas Rossi to have his extradition hearing cancelled has been thrown out by a sheriff.
Lawyers for Rossi, 35, argued the extradition case, due to start on Monday, shouldn’t get underway as he’s also being sought in England for questioning over an alleged rape.
His legal team argued the “degree of uncertainty” over the allegations down south created an “unfair” and “prejudicial” situation for their client.
Prosecutors argued the hearing should be go ahead at Edinburgh Sheriff Court as it wasn’t known whether Essex Police planned to charge Rossi.
Sheriff Norman McFadyen said “with some hesitation” he was going to allow the week-long hearing to continue.
Last week it was reported by our sister paper, the Sunday Mail, that Essex Police had worked with authorities in Scotland to set up a method of quizzing Rossi.
A woman in Essex claims she was raped by Rossi when he’d fled the US and turned up at her home in 2017 after they had met online.
Rossi, who is fighting a bid to return him to the United States to face charges including rape, appeared in court for beginning of the extradition hearing.
Mungo Bovey KC, acting for Rossi, made a motion to have the hearing “discharged” due to the request by English cops to interview Rossi.
Mr Bovey said it would be “inappropriate” to continue the hearing as Rossi could end up being charged in Essex.
He told the court if Rossi were to be convicted over those allegations, he couldn’t be returned to the US while serving a prison sentence and several years may pass.
Mr Bovey said the legal arguments prepared to contest Rossi’s extradtion - such as his mental state and conditions in American prisons - relate to the present day.
He added the request for a cross border transfer had come last October, but said the Crown had failed to raise the issue at previous hearings.
Advocate depute Alan Cameron said any transfer of Rossi for interview would be arranged between the Scottish Prison Service - as Rossi is being held on remand in Saughton jail - and their English counterparts.
Mr Cameron said: “(Rossi) has not been charged. There is currently no information available to the Crown that a decision has been made to charge him. Under those circumstances this hearing should proceed.”
He added: “While it’s possible that following this hearing he may be charged, it’s equally possible he may not.”
Allowing the hearing to continue, Sheriff McFadyen said the situation was “deeply unsatisfactory”, adding the Crown has been “at best discourteous to the court” by failing to raise the contentious matter earlier.
Rossi was arrested at Glasgow’s Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in December 2021 while receiving treatment for Covid-19. He was detained on the original extradition warrant over an alleged 2008 rape in Utah.
During an extradition hearing in November, Sheriff McFadyen blasted Rossi’s claims to be an innocent Irishman called Arthur Knight in his ruling on Rossi’s identity.
He called Rossi’s allegation he was tattooed while in a coma in the Glasgow hospital to frame him as “implausible and fanciful”.
The sheriff said Rossi’s “highly suspicious” change of names in recent years was “consistent with someone who was hiding from someone or something”.
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