Better jail conditions would await alleged Mafia boss Domenico Rancadore if he were extradited, and for that reason he should be sent home to face the music, the Italian authorities argued in court today (Monday).

But Mr Rancadore was granted bail at Westminster Magistrates’ Court, following his arrest at home in Manor Waye, Uxbridge on Friday evening last week, until a full extradition hearing on May 28.

Last month, the 65-year-old from Trabia, Sicily, won his first fight against extradition to Italy when District Judge Howard Riddle ruled prison conditions there would breach his human rights.

In court this afternoon, Adam Harbinson, for the Italian authorities, said although The European Arrest Warrant before the court was similar to the one thrown out on March 17 on human rights grounds, the new warrant gives assurances that Mr Rancadore will serve his time in Voghera or Viterbo prisons, which have a better human rights record.

In 1999, he received a seven-year sentence in his absence for ‘Mafia association’.

“The assurances in the European Arrest Warrant in relation to Mr Rancadore specifically sets out the prisons in which he will be posted and sets out that they fully comply with Article 3 of the European Convention of Human Rights and will not be overcrowded”, said Adam Harbinson, for the Italian authorities, who said Mr Rancadore was ‘a flight risk’ and had resisted arrest.

“This is a warrant for a very serious crime committed over a long period of time – in the 1980s and 1990s,” said Mr Harbinson.

“An offence described in the warrant as being based upon Mr Rancadore’s being one of the heads of the armed criminal organisation Cosa Nostra.”

But Alun Jones, QC, representing the former travel agent who had lived a quiet life in the ordinary Uxbridge side street until his dramatic arrest last August, said the Italian conviction was based on taking an ‘oath of initiation’ and working with his father – who was also convicted as a Mafia member.

Mr Rancadore, he said, played no part ‘beyond lending support in his position as the son of a Mafia family’.

District Judge Quentin Purdy granted conditional bail until May 28. Mr Rancadore must remain within the M25, submit to electronic tagging and comply with a curfew between 11pm and 6am.

He must also report to a police station twice daily, provide a £20,000 surety and not apply for travel documents.

Mr Rancadore blew a kiss to his wife, Anne, in the public gallery as he was led back to the cells before being released on bail.