Rúben Saraiva, 28, shot the businessman seven times, allegedly at the request of a rival. He was sentenced to the maximum penalty.
For the murder of a businessman, Rúben SaraivaPortuguese, aged 28, was sentenced to life imprisonment in Albania — the maximum sentence in that country.
A court in Lezhê convicted the Portuguese man of the murder of Albanian businessman Ardian Nikulaj. THE crime will have been orderedin a context of rivalries linked to illegitimate businesses, advances this Thursday.
According to the court decision, it was proven that Rúben Saraiva was hired by a rival businessman of the victimresident in the United Kingdom, to carry out the murder. And so it was.
On April 19, 2023, Ardian Nikulaj, aged 51, was hit by seven shotsincluding on the head, in a bar at the hotel he owns in Shëngjin, in northern Albania. The person who pulled the trigger was the young Portuguese man, who would be arrested the following month in Rabat, Morocco, under an international arrest warrant issued by the Albanian authorities.
Once extradited to Albania, Saraiva has since been in pre-trial detention.
Rúben Saraiva’s defense has denied any involvement in the murder and had already requested his release due to an alleged lack of evidence, a request that was refused by the courts. In November last year, the defendant returned to court to contest the maintenance of the precautionary measure.
The Albanian authorities also indicate that the crime was ordered by Edmon Haxhia on behalf of his cousins, from the Lekstakaj family. Four other British citizens — Stephen Hunt, Thomas Mithan, Harriet Bridgeman and Harry Simpson — are named as indirect participants and face separate legal proceedings.
