More delays for Cyprus pair (From Braintree and Witham Times)

More delays for Cyprus pair

5:45pm Friday 20th November 2009

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A COURT hearing to decide if two cousins will be extradited to Cyprus has been postponed.

Luke Atkinson and Michael Binnington were due to find out on Thursday at the High Court in London if would serve their three-year prison sentences in this country or Cyprus.

The 24-year-olds, both from the Witham area, had been due to be extradited last Friday but found out they had been given an emergency injunction while on their way to hand themselves into police in London.

Mr Atkinson's mother, Averil Atkinson, described the latest wait for news as "mental torture."

She said: "It's just waiting again. Nothing happened. I think people expected something to happen on Thursday."

The cousins will find out next week when the hearing will take place.

They were passengers in a car driven by Mr Atkinson's uncle, Julian Harrington, when it was in collision with a moped carrying Cypriot teenager Christos Papiris, who died as a result.

Mr Binnington and Mr Atkinson were acquitted of culpable manslaughter and grievous bodily harm after the crash in 2006.

But the acquittals were overturned in January last year after the Attorney General of Cyprus appealed.

Mr Harrington, of Witham, was handed a 15-year jail term - now cut to seven years - after admitting the same charges but has maintained the crash was a tragic accident.

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