Albanian murderer who posed as a Kosovan asylum seeker and lived off UK benefits for 14 years should be deported, judge rules
Saliman Barci claims he will be hunted down and killed in Albania because he is at risk from a blood feud
AN Albanian murderer who posed as a Kosovan asylum seeker to gain UK citizenship should be extradited, a judge ruled.
One-legged Saliman Barci, 41, has been living off benefits for 14 years and "deliberately misled" UK immigration authorities with a false alias and passport.
The dad of three fled here after killing Perparim Ibrahimi and Artur Gjoka with a military rifle in 1997, but was later convicted in his absence.
He lured the victims to their deaths in Burrel, northern Albania, with the promise of 60million Leks, equivalent to £340,000.
When new evidence came to light, he was convicted of both murders and illegally possessing military weapons and sentenced to 25 years in jail in 2009.
However, the High Court in Tirana quashed his conviction in 2013 and sent the case to Albania's Appeal Court.
Barci, who had been using the alias Saimir Basha, was arrested in the UK after Albanian prosecutors requested his extradition on 17 July 2015.
He hobbled into the dock today using a walking stick and waved to his three children in the public gallery at Westminster Magistrates' Court.
Judge Zani said: "I have considered all of the arguments very ably made on your behalf as well as the elements you have given me, but I'm afraid I have rejected each of them."
In his written ruling, he said: "(Barci) agreed that he deliberately misled the UK authorities in relation to these applications.
"He also inaccurately told them he was from Kosovo rather than Albania as he believed this would enhance his chances of being successful in those applications."
He continued: "Salman Barci started that the reason why he adopted - and then maintained - a false identity in the UK was because his life had been threatened by members of one of the families of the two deceased persons in respect of whose murder he has been convicted in Albania."
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Barci tried to fight extradition using rights enshrined by the European Convention on Human Rights as well as citing parts of the Extradition Act 2003.
Barci told a previous hearing he had to have his left leg amputated 2cm under the knee in 1995 after suffering serious injuries in a motorcycle crash.
He now has a prosthetic leg and is taking beta blockers and statins after suffering what he claims was a "minor heart attack" in custody in the UK.
Prosecutors requested he be returned last July but Barci, of Northolt, North West London, claimed his life was at risk in a “blood feud”.
He also argued he would not receive care in prison if sent home.
His wife Mimoza gave her version of events to the .
She said the killer abandoned her and their young child within a few weeks of the murders.
By 2002, the family were reunited and Barci came up with the idea of coming to the UK as Kosovans.
She said: "We came here to start a new life after the murders. We came from Calais in a big van. After that we went to Croydon to claim asylum.
Her priority was the safety of her son and she was "too scared" to leave her son.
Barci has the right to appeal the ruling and the Secretary of State's ruling once it is made.