Extradited by the U.S. after three decades on the run, Sokol Hoxha appears at Fier Court under strict security and seeks to have his sentence declared time-barred

Extradited from the U.S., Sokol Hoxha, convicted of the murder of three citizens, is seeking to have declared time-barred the sentence handed down by the Fier Court for the murder of the Banaj brothers in Patos, in 1997.

Sokol Hoxha, from Patosi, aged 51, sentenced to 25 years in prison for the murder of the two Banaj brothers in 1997 and to life imprisonment by a Belgian court for the murder of Brunilda Dervishi, is seeking to benefit from criminal-law mechanisms such as the time-barring of the sentence.

He has arrived at the Fier Court for the hearing at which he is asking for the criminal sentence to be declared time-barred. The 51-year-old was captured in the U.S. in May, thanks to cooperation between law-enforcement agencies in Albania, Belgium and the U.S., as part of the operation codenamed “Globi”, and was extradited to Albania on 6 August.

Hoxha was sent to Fier prison to serve the 25-year prison sentence handed down in absentia by the Fier Court in 2000.

But now that 26 years have passed without the criminal sentence being executed, the murderer is seeking to have the sentence extinguished. The hearing is held at midday at the Fier Court. A life sentence has been handed down against the 51-year-old in Belgium for the murder of Brunilda Dervishi, a few months after the murder of the brothers in Patos.

In March 1997, then aged 21, he shot dead the brothers Ilirjan Banaj and his brother Hektor Banaj near the fruit-and-vegetable market in Patos. According to reports at the time, the cause was a conflict over a car cassette player. According to sources on the incident, Hoxha committed the murder of the Banaj brothers in cooperation with other citizens.

After the grave incident, he fled first to Greece and then settled in Belgium.

In Belgium, he was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Brunilda Dervishi, an Albanian woman whom, according to the investigations, he had previously exploited for prostitution. The incident took place on 29 August 1997 at a venue in Brussels, after the woman allegedly opposed her exploitation.