LONDON, July 22, 2008 (AFP) - Italy was accused in London's High Court Tuesday of breaking European human rights legislation in terrorism cases, as lawyers sought to prevent the extradition of three Tunisian men to face trial.

Anthony Lester said there was a serious risk that the Italians would use counter-terrorism legislation to send Habib Ignaoua, Mohamed Khemiri and Ali Chehidi back to Tunisia before they could appeal against their expulsion.

They could also be tortured, he told judges Malcolm Pill and Anne Rafferty.

Italy had previously used the so-called 'Pisanu Law' to deport a man to Tunisia who had since disappeared, he added.

'This law operates in a way which undermines the effective production of the European Convention on Human Rights and lacks adequate safeguards against abuse,' Lester said.

Ignaoua, Khemiri and Chehidi were arrested in the London and Manchester areas late last year as part of co-ordinated raids across Europe against an alleged north Italy-based network recruiting fighters for Iraq and Afghanistan.

European warrants for their arrest had been issued by an investigating magistrate attached to courts in Milan, the court was told.

The first two men have previously been tried and convicted in their absence in Tunisia of terrorism-related offences, the judges heard.

A judge at a lower court in London ordered in May that all three -- aged 37, 53 and 35 at the time -- should be extradited.

That judge criticised Tunisia's human rights record and Italian immigration law, he said was sure Italy would uphold a previous European Court of Human Rights ruling barring it from deporting a Tunisian man in a similar case.

Lester said that Italian deportation law allowed 'a systemic breach of well-established convention principles' and Britain had received 'no assurances' that the three men would not be sent back to Tunisia.