Killer bailed despite 24 years on run

A CONVICTED killer who has been on the run for 24 years after a murder in Albania was tracked down in Britain – and released on bail.

Arjan Hoxhaj, 50, was sentenced to 23 years in prison in Albania in his absence, for the murder of Ramadan Bregu who was stabbed to death, and the attempted murder of Nefail Bregu.

Hoxhaj is said to have attacked the pair on April 12, 1995, but slipped illegally into the UK where he lived for nearly 25 years under aliases.

He was arrested by Met Police officers late last year and placed in custody while he fought against extradition back to Albania.

Westminster magistrates court records show he was remanded because he was seen as a serious risk of absconding. At a subsequent hearing, however, he was released on conditional bail.

Under the terms Hoxhaj is forbidden from going to any international port, airport or railway station and his passport is retained by police.

He must live and sleep each night at an address in Gateshead. Hoxhaj was even allowed to have his bail varied over the new year to let him stay briefly at a London address. A security of £40,000 has been lodged with the court.

It is not the first time a judge at Westminster magistrates court has allowed a convicted murderer out on conditional bail to fight extradition.

In 2018 Hektor Mahmutaj, who had been wanted by Albania for a similar length of time, was freed from custody.

He later absconded, while then Home Secretary Sajid Javid was reaching the final decision to extradite him, and remains at large.

David Spencer, head of research at think tank the Centre for Crime Prevention, said: “Granting bail to a convicted murderer due to be extradited is clearly an appalling error of judgment that potentially puts more lives at risk.

“Those fighting extradition orders are always going to be at a greater risk of absconding, and given this man had already fled justice once, and was also in this country illegally, more common sense should have been applied.”