An administrative error by the Home Office risks the extradition of a British ‘hit squad’ accused of murdering a businessman in Albania in a feud over £80,000.
The gang – including a young mother – allegedly flew to the seaside resort of Shengjin, and posed as tourists as they checked into a five-star hotel owned by their target, Ardian Nikulaj.
There they accepted free meals from their unsuspecting victim, chatted with his wife and played pool with his 13-year-old son as they allegedly monitored his movements before one gave the signal to strike, the victim’s grieving family claim.
A fifth alleged gang member then walked into the hotel restaurant and shot Nikulaj six times at point-blank range with a Soviet-made semi-automatic pistol before fleeing.
Horrific CCTV footage captured the brutal murder in April last year, along with multiple earlier visits to the hotel by the Britons, who were allegedly seen filming the inside of the restaurant.
In August last year, Harriet Bridgeman, 40, and Thomas Mithan, 37, both from Bristol, and Harry Simpson, 34, from south London, were told by a judge that they had lost their court battle to block extradition to face trial in Albania.
District Judge Daniel Sternberg also dismissed an appeal from Edmond Haxhia, 40, a British-Albanian accused of directing the gang, and sent all four cases to then Home Secretary Yvette Cooper to be signed off.
But in August, the Home Office told Albanian officials they had made a potentially serious error by muddling up the charges.
The extradition order signed by Ms Cooper stated that all four suspects had been charged in Albania with illegal possession of firearms and ammunition, and murder due to a blood feud.
But in September 2023, the Albanian government had said the firearms charges had been dropped and the other charges changed to ‘pre-meditated murder’.
In a letter dated August 20, the Home Office said there was ‘no legal mechanism’ for Ms Cooper to correct the error and warned it could lead to the extradition proceedings collapsing.
They asked Albanian officials to send a written ‘assurance’ about the charges the suspects would be facing to avoid the mistake being exploited by their lawyers.
Albanian officials have now supplied this document ahead of the suspects’ appeal hearing against extradition in the High Court on Tuesday, the Mail understands.
Under Albanian blood feud tradition, a family must avenge a relative’s murder by killing a male member of the killer’s family – who then have to do the same in return – in an ongoing cycle of bloodshed.
Haxhia is accused of organising the gang to target Nikulaj as part of a feud between their families that has lasted nearly three decades and already led to seven killings. It is alleged to have begun in a row over £80,000.
Ahead of the ruling relatives of Nikulaj told the Mail how their family had unwittingly welcomed the operatives accused of helping to murder him as one of their first guests in their newly opened hotel.
Sitting next to the now permanently ‘reserved’ table where her husband was shot, Nikulaj’s wife Vera fought back tears as she told how, because of the blood feud, they were wary of threats from Albanians but never suspected that Britons could be involved.
She first saw Bridgeman, mother of a young son, in the hotel restaurant. She kept trying to make eye contact with Ardian.
‘I told her, I speak English, how can I help you? She asked to rent a car and Ardian arranged it for her.’
The following day the Nikulaj family dined in the restaurant at the next table to Bridgeman and one of the British men.
‘She wanted to pay with a credit card, but it didn’t work. Ardian said to the waiter ‘don’t worry, I’ll pay for them.’
‘They came up to us and thanked Ardian for paying for their lunch.’
Her son Luis, now 14, described how a few days later he saw Simpson at the pool table which faced the restaurant where his father would later be gunned down.
He said: ‘The next day I was eating with him at the same table. I was eating beans and Simpson said: ‘let me try this traditional Albanian food.’
‘He took his spoon and started eating the beans from my plate. I told my mother that man looks a bit strange.
‘Ardian said, ‘don’t worry son, he’s just a tourist, you don’t have to worry about him.’
On the third day, after finishing his pizza and beer in the restaurant, Simpson picked up his tray and tried to carry it behind a curtain in the hotel restaurant where staff and family worked, she said.
‘Ardian said to him, ‘don’t worry, leave it on the table, you’re on holiday.
‘But Simpson was very curious to know what was behind the curtain.’
The alleged gunman, Ruben Saraiva, a Portuguese-born British resident, was also spotted lurking in a stairwell close to the scene of the shooting in the days leading up to it.
Local children reported seeing a ‘strange man hanging around all the time’ and one was able to provide a detailed drawing after the murder, relatives said.
Nikulaj is believed to have been targeted because he was accused of gunning down a rival family member in 1997- itself said to be as revenge for the murder of his elder brother after a row over a £5 petrol payment which began the feud. The Nikulaj family deny he was a killer.
Saraiva is already in Albania awaiting trial for murder after being arrested in Morocco where he allegedly fled after the attack.
An Albanian expert on organised crime, who asked for anonymity, told the Mail: ‘This is the biggest and most important extradition case in the past 25 years from UK to Albania’.
‘Albanian prosecutors have built a strong case about the four people arrested in the UK.
‘Albanian police have an idea who ordered and paid for the killer and surveillance team to get to Albania but they do not have any strong proof at the moment.
‘Albanian police believe that more than €1million (£869,000) was paid to recruit the surveillance team and the killer in the UK to take that killing of this businessman’.
‘They are hoping for the arrested people in the UK to be extradited and then they may cooperate with the Albanian prosecutors telling how they were recruited and how much were paid in return of getting lower sentences.’
Judge Sternberg has delayed a ruling on a fifth Briton, Steven Hunt, 50, from Bristol, until a further hearing.
He said in his original judgment: ‘The Government of Albania’s case is that Edmond Haxhia organised the shooting of Ardian Nikulaj by Reuben Saraiva on 19 April 2023 and that the other requested persons, Steven Hunt, Thomas Mithan, Harriet Bridgeman and Harry Simpson were involved in observations of the victim’s movements in the days leading up to the shooting, and in Simpson’s case on the day of the shooting itself, and that each of them played a part in the planning and execution of the murder.’
Professor Ervin Karamuco, from the criminology department at Tirana University, told the Mail: ‘This event shows the strong connection that Albanian criminals have created with British ones.
‘The budget made available for this assassination remains worrying, which shows how much money Albanian criminals are making in Britain.
‘Until now we have seen Albanian getting involved in all sorts of crimes in the UK but never seen a team of Brits being persuaded to get involved in a killing in Albania.’
All suspects deny involvement in the murder.
The Home Office did not respond to a request for comment.
