A THAI court has ordered the extradition of a former banker and Italian mafia boss accused of laundering money for two Sicilian godfathers.
Vito Roberto Palazzolo, who was arrested in Thailand in March after investigators tracked him down through Facebook, is considered to a leading member of the Cosa Nostra Sicilian mafia.
"The court ruled that Palazzolo should be extradited," an official at the Bangkok Criminal Court said.
"The judge ruled his case was not political as it's organised crime and money laundering," she said.
Under Thai law, the 65-year-old is entitled to file an appeal within 30 days, but his lawyer in Italy suggested he was unlikely to oppose the ruling.
"Palazzolo does not intend to appeal and his return to Italy will probably be voluntary," said Baldassare Lauria.
"This is not 100-per cent sure yet but we are speaking to the Italian government and judges. My client wants to speak to prosecutors to clear things up. From his time as a banker in Switzerland, he can shed light on many mysteries and on his ties with institutions," Mr Lauria added.
Palazzolo previously worked as a banker in Switzerland and was convicted in the 1980s of laundering mafia revenues from drug trafficking between Asia and Europe and the United States in an operation named the "Pizza Connection".
He served three years in prison for the crime. A few years after his release, the lead prosecutor in the case was assassinated with a roadside bomb that also killed his wife and three bodyguards.
Palazzolo is accused of being the "treasurer" for the last two godfathers of the Sicilian mafia who are now in jail - Bernardo Provenzano and Toto Riina, who imposed a reign of terror in the 1980s and 1990s.
He was sentenced in absentia by an Italian court in 2009 to nine years in jail for association with the mafia, and had been living in South Africa under the name Robert von Palace Kolbatschenko before travelling to Thailand.
In South Africa - which declined to extradite him - Palazzolo was seen as a major businessman with interests in mineral water, security and ostrich farming.
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