Albanian Murderer Deported in 2009 Is Back in the UK

LOUISA GOULIAMAKI/AFP/Getty Images
LOUISA GOULIAMAKI/AFP/Getty Images

An Albanian murderer deported from the UK in 2009 after a lengthy legal battle is back in the country, running a £40,000 business and making no effort to conceal his identity, according to reports.

Selami Cokaj was sentenced to twenty years for murder and armed robbery in his native Albania, but escaped from prison and infiltrated the UK posing as a Kosovar refugee. Cokaj, who spent time on Interpol’s most-wanted list, was eventually discovered, but immediately claimed asylum.

The case dragged on for years and was widely reported in the British press at the time, but Cokaj was finally deported after successive appeals went all the way to the House of Lords.

Cokaj was free by 2012. However, as so much time had elapsed between his original sentence and final recapture Albanian law did not allow for a lengthy term of imprisonment. The Sun now reports that the killer is back in the UK, with two car valeting firms listed in his name on the Companies House register.

Criminals sentenced to more than four years in prison are supposed to be automatically banned from entering the UK, suggesting Cokaj either duped UK Border Force officials or entered the country clandestinely.

Albanian migrants attempting to enter the UK illegally are found in British ports more often than any other nationality, according to the latest figures. It is possible that Cokaj spent time at an illegal migrant camp in Dieppe, France, from which Albanian migrants attempt to enter Britain “every single night”.

Albanians have also been known to cross the Channel on smuggler boats, taking advantage of Britain’s “porous” maritime borders. Brexit campaign leader Nigel Farage has warned the UK may see “bodies washing up” on its beaches, as in the Mediterranean Sea, if action is not taken to replenish the Border Force’s badly depleted resources.

UK border controls on the European continent are also under terrific strain, with two-hundred illegal migrants a day being intercepted in the month leading the European Union referendum, and the morale of frontline officers was said to be at “rock bottom” in late 2016.

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