An Italian businessman has won a court battle against attempts by India to extradite him from Malaysia over the Bofors arms bribery scandal, a legal official said today.

Ottavio Quattrocchi's lawyer told AFP that the court has discharged the Italian businessman and ordered his passport and bail be returned.

"Quattrocchi is a free man. He will not be extradited to India. The application to have him extradited has been dismissed by the court," Mohamad Shafee Abdullah said.

After the court decision, Quattrocchi was quoted as saying: "I'm innocent. I am happy with the judgement," Abdullah said.

Political vendetta

Quattrocchi, who has been on bail since his arrest in December 2000, alleges the extradition attempt is politically motivated.

He has said he fell foul of an Indian political vendetta and his only crime was to have been a close friend of India's former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi and his widow Sonia.

Gandhi was assassinated in 1991, and Sonia now heads the opposition Congress party.

Mohamad Shafee said sessions court judge Akhtar Tahir ruled that he was unable to conduct an extradition inquiry without having the charges before him.

"This is a serious bone of contention. How does the court conduct an extradition inquiry without the charges levelled against Quattrocchi?" he quoted Akhtar as telling the court.

India's Central Bureau of Investigations has levelled charges against Quattrocchi as well as former Bofors agent Win Chadha, the British-based billionaire Hinduja brothers - Srichand, Gopichand and Prakash - and former Bofors chief Martin Ardbo.

All the charges relate to the 1986 scandal in which Bofors allegedly paid US$14.2 million in bribes to clinch a weapons contract with India worth a total of US$1.3 billion.

Home Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi had formally issued an extradition order against Quattrocchi but a court must rule on whether to enforce it because the two countries do not have an extradition treaty.

Quattrocchi lived in New Delhi until 1993 as the representative of Italian firm Snamprogretti Spa and then moved to Malaysia. AFP