Italian Minister Sides with Mosley over EAW

Italian Minister of Justice Roberto Castelli has showed his support to Max Mosley's decision to leave England to avoid the threat of arrest in the event of a serious motorsport accident in the European Union.

Mosley, the head of Formula One's governing body, announced on Monday that he is to move to Monaco. The International Automobile Federation (FIA) president said he has decided to relocate from Britain on legal advice following the introduction of a new European Arrest Warrant - EAW.

Formula One teams fear the warrants could lead to key personnel being extradited and jailed pending trial in the event of an accident such as the one that killed Brazilian champion Ayrton Senna at Imola in Italy in 1994.

Mosley, whose organisation's headquarters will remain in Paris, said that teams were likely to secure undertakings that such procedures would not be used against them but his position was more complicated. Formula One race director Charlie Whiting was also likely to become a Monaco resident.

Castelli said that the decision to introduce the new arrest warrant "was not carefully considered."

"During a recent television programme in which I participated, Mario Segni, member of the Euro Parliament, let slip that the new European arrest warrant legislation would be used to 'persecute' European citizens charged with some offences," Castelli said in a statement.

"A significant slip of the tongue, which reflects the real feeling that more than one person has towards this tool. In fact, someone has started to realise, as I said back then, that it won't be used just to prosecute terrorists, but it will end up with interfering with people's lives.

"Max Mosley, who has effectively decided to leave the European Union to move to Montecarlo, has 'solved' the problem, but this is a solution evidently unfeasible for the majority of the European citizens, who risk to find themselves, in the not too distant future, with facing the consequences of a European decision which at best was not carefully considered."