Albanian ‘killer’ to be deported... for second time
AN ALBANIAN alleged double murderer faces being extradited from Britain for the second time after sneaking into the UK twice and even gaining citizenship under a false name.
Ilirian Zeqaj, 50, allegedly shot two men in the Albanian village of Cakran in 1999, but slipped into the UK in the back of a lorry five months later and claimed asylum under the name Klemend Zeqaj after falsely telling officials he was a Kosovan refugee.
And despite being one of Albania’s most wanted fugitives, he was granted permanent leave to remain in 2005 and British citizenship the following year.
He was convicted in his absence of two counts of murder in 2002 and sentenced to 23 years in prison. Zeqaj, who has three children, including a daughter who is attending Cambridge University, was finally tracked down by British police in 2011 and extradited to Albania two years later to face a retrial, which acquitted him of the murders.
He was released and travelled back to Britain immediately, but Albania’s High Court later found the trial had been corrupted and the not guilty verdicts were not safe.
Since moving to Britain, Zeqaj, who lives in Hanwell, north-west London, has been running a bathroom fitting company.
The father- of-three now faces being sent back to his homeland to face another trial for the murders of Gramoz and Shkelqim Llanaj.
The brothers were gunned down in September 1999, on their way to the village post office in an alleged revenge attack over the murder of a member of the Zeqaj family three days earlier, according to Albanian legal documents.
Members of the victims’ family claim they saw Zeqaj and his cousin
Jetnor holding machine guns moments after hearing the shots that killed the brothers.
Legal papers filed at the Albanian Supreme Court state: ‘At one point they heard gunshots and from the place where they were located they saw the defendant Ilirian Zeqaj with a light machine gun in his hand, who immediately after the gunshots left in the direction of his house.
‘Meanwhile, the other defendant, Jetnor Zeqaj, with a machine gun in his hand, quickly left in the direction of the road. ‘After the shooting stopped, the witnesses went to the scene, where they found Gramoz and Shkelqim lying on the ground.’
Police found 22 bullet casings at the scene that had been fired from Jetnor’s gun, the documents said.
Jetnor was arrested by Albanian police and later found guilty of murder, but Zeqaj fled and is understood to have entered Britain illegally in the back of a lorry in November 1999.
The Albanian High Court revisited Zeqaj’s trial in 2017 and found the law had not been applied correctly and his acquittal had been unsafe. Prosecutor Petrit Vukaj issued a new arrest warrant and Zeqaj was added to Interpol’s wanted list. He was then picked up by the British authorities.
Zeqaj appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on October 10 and will next appear on January 30. His lawyer, Louisa Collins, argued that he had already been acquitted of the murders and was willing to put up a £30,000 security to prove he was not a flight risk.
At a hearing earlier this year, a district judge granted Zeqaj bail with conditions including a curfew, the £30,000 security and that he is not permitted to travel to any international train station, airport or seaport.
Zeqaj, who denies the murders, was later spotted outside the family home carrying bathroom equipment.
A Home Office spokesman said: ‘Mr Zeqaj was previously extradited to Albania and was acquitted. Following a further extradition request from the Albanian authorities, he was arrested on February 27, 2022, in the UK.’
‘Seen with a gun in his hand’