The wife of Ardian Nikulaj and his son have spoken for the first time after more than a year since his murder in Shengjin, Lezha. Vera Nikulaj, speaking for Daily Mail, said that the Nikulaj family has decided to speak only now, a few days before the decision to extradite the perpetrators of the businessman's murder.

According to what he writes Daily Mail, Vera, with tears in her eyes and with great pain, said that her family hosted the group of British, who observed Ardian's movements and helped the client Edmond Haxhia in his execution, in the hotel that had just been inaugurated. She says that they hosted the team that helped the killer, not knowing what their role was and that they even thanked her for the food.

Excerpt from the Daily Mail article:

A British gang suspected of a vendetta killing in Albania has lost a court battle against extradition. The gang - including a young mother - allegedly flew to the Balkan 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 food from their unsuspecting victim, chatted with his wife and played pool with his 13-year-old son while allegedly monitoring his movements before one gave the signal to shoot, the family of grieving the victim.

A fifth suspected gang member then entered the hotel restaurant and shot Nikulaj six times with a Soviet-made automatic pistol before fleeing. The gruesome CCTV footage captured the brutal killing last April and numerous previous visits to the hotel by Britons, where they were allegedly seen filming the interior of the hotel's restaurant.

Harriet Bridgeman, 28, and Thomas Mithan, 35, both from Bristol, and Harry Simpson, 33, from South London, learned yesterday that their court battle to block extradition to face trial in Albania had failed, when they appeared at Westminster Magistrates' Court.

Ms Bridgeman wept as District Judge Daniel Sternberg told them he would send their cases to the Home Secretary for a final decision. The judge is also sending to the Home Secretary the case of British-Albanian Edmond Haxhia, from Birmingham, who is accused of organizing the gang to target Nikulaj as part of a 'blood feud' between their families, which has lasted almost three decades and has already leading to seven murders.

The judge deferred a decision on a fifth Briton, Steven Hunt, 50, also from Bristol, until a further hearing. According to the Albanian tradition of blood feud, a family must avenge the killing of a relative by killing a male member of the killer's family – who must then do the same in return – in a cycle of continuous bloodshed. Nikulaj's relatives told the Daily Mail how their family had unwittingly hosted the operatives accused of helping Ardian's murder.

Sitting next to the already 'reserved' table, where her husband was shot, Nikulaj's wife, Vera, tearfully told how because of the blood feud they were wary of threats from the Albanians, but they never suspected that the British could be involved. in an attack. She first saw Bridgeman, the mother of a young son, in the hotel restaurant.

"She continued to make eye contact with Ardian. I said, I speak English, how can I help you? "She asked to rent a car and Ardian arranged it for her. The next day the Nikulaj family dined at the restaurant at the next table with Bridgeman and one of the British men. “She wanted to pay with a credit card, but it didn't work. Ardian told the waiter 'don't worry, I will pay them'. "They came to us and thanked Ardian for paying for their lunch." Her son Louis, now 14, described how days later he saw Simpson at the pool table across the street from the restaurant where his father would later be killed.

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 the man seems a little strange. Ardiani 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 at the restaurant, Simpson picked up his tray and tried to hold it behind a curtain in the hotel restaurant where staff and family were working, she said. Ardiani said: Don't worry, leave it on the table, you are on vacation. "But Simpson was very curious to know what was behind the curtain."

Suspected killer Ruben Saraiva, a British resident born in Portugal, was also seen lurking on a staircase near the scene of the shooting in the days leading up to it. Local children reported seeing a 'strange man hanging 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 is accused of gunning down a rival family member in 1997 - himself said to be in revenge for the killing of his older brother after a row over a £5 petrol payment who started the fight. The Nikulaj family denies that he was a murderer.

Saraiva is now in Albania awaiting trial for murder after he was arrested in Morocco, where he allegedly fled after the attack. The judge said: "The issue is that Edmond Haxhia organized the murder of Ardian Nikulaj by Reuben Saraiva on April 19, 2023 and that the other wanted persons, Steven Hunt, Thomas Mithan, Harriet Bridgeman and Harry Simpson were involved in the surveillance of the victim's movements in the days before the shooting, and in Simpson's case on the day of the shooting itself, and that each played a role in the planning and execution of the murder.'

(d.xh-Balkanweb)