05/08/2005 (Agence Europe) - Commissioner Fratini welcomed the decision taken by the Court of Appeal of Rome to hold, on 17 August, an extradition hearing of Issac Hamdi, one of the men suspected of carrying out the attempted bombings in London on 21 July. Franco Frattini welcomes the “timely and swift” decision of Italy's Court of Appeal. He considers that Europe and its facilitated extradition instrument, the European arrest warrant, is finally playing its role”. The Court is expected to decide how to respond to the United Kingdom's request for extradition. The magistrates could decide to extradite Issac Hamdi temporarily, or to judge him first of all in Italy. This is a major test for the role of the European arrest warrant in counter-terrorism, after the German Supreme Court had released a German-Syrian national wanted in Spain as the Court had considered German law did not sufficiently protect its citizens against arbitrary extradition (EUROPE 8993).