A CONVICTED killer from Albania who was discovered leading a double life as a Glasgow chip shop worker has been allowed to stay in Britain.
The UK Supreme Court has overturned a decision by the Court of Appeal in Edinburgh to send Fatjon Kapri home.
He fled to Glasgow after allegedly stabbing a man to death in London in 2001 and worked in the Blue Lagoon chip shop on Gordon Street in the city centre.
During his time there he took a false Macedonian identity, Sadiku Saymire, and began a relationship with a co-worker.
However, he had been convicted in his absence in Elbasan, Albania, in 2002 for murdering the man, another Albanian national named Ylli Pepa, and given a 22-year jail term.
The Albanians asked the British authorities to send Kapri back but the 30-year-old fled from London.
In 2010, he was traced to Glasgow and arrested. After a lengthy appeal process, during which Kapri claimed the Albanian court system was corrupt, three judges at the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh refused his request not to be extradited.
However, a five-judge panel at the Supreme Court in London, headed by Lord Hope, has ruled sending Kapri back to Albania would breach his right to a fair trial under Article Six of the European Convention on Human Rights.
The Supreme Court ruling said: "The new argument (by Kapri's legal team) - was supported by averments - that the judicial system in Albania was systemically corrupt.
"They incorporated a number of reports by, among others, the European Commission, the Swedish International Cooperation Agency and the US Department of State, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labour."
The judges, Lord Hope, deputy president of the Supreme Court, Lady Hale, Lord Kerr, Lord Sumption, and Lord Toulson concluded: "It is a sad fact that, despite all the many provisions in international human rights instruments which emphasise everyone has the right to a fair trial before an independent and impartial judge, there are still states where the judiciary as a whole is infected by corruption.
"It is hard to get at the true facts. But there is no smoke without fire, and where allegations of corruption are widespread they must be taken seriously. So too must an appreciation of what corruption may lead to when it affects the whole system.
"It may involve simple bribery of judges and court officials, or it may involve interference with the judicial system for political reasons of a much more insidious kind. Unjust convictions may result, just to keep the system going and keep prices up."
It stated that everyone whose case came before the courts of a country where practices like that were widespread was at risk of injustice.
They added: "The proper course, therefore, is for the case to be returned to the Appeal Court (in Edinburgh) so it can be provided with up-to-date information and reach a properly informed decision as to whether or not the threshold test (on corruption in the Albanian system) is satisfied.
The judgment added that there is new evidence about Albania available to the Court of Appeal which can be debated at a new hearing.
Kapri remains in custody.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article