Video: Klaudio Kanani, the Albanian who escaped execution in China, appears for the first time — here is the sentence he received on appeal

Footage has been published in which Klaudio Kanani, who escaped the death penalty in China, appears for the first time.

“Don’t worry, I am well and in good health. I have missed you. I am fine here, but of course like in prison. Don’t worry about anything, because I don’t have problems, I am fine,” says the young man originally from Tepelena.

He hopes and appeals to the Albanian state to enable him to be transferred to serve his sentence in a prison in our country.

The Court of Appeal in China’s Guangdong province has rejected the prosecution’s request to punish Klaudio with the death penalty, after he was accused in the communist state of drug trafficking.

A spokesman for that court confirmed to Top Channel journalist Muhamed Veliu that, a few days ago, at the detention centre in Guangzhou, a judge communicated the appeal decision to Klaudio Kanani.

“The appeal has rejected the prosecution’s request for the death penalty, and the June 2025 first-instance decision has been left in force, sentencing him to 25 years in prison after he was found guilty of trafficking 1 tonne of drugs dispatched from Hong Kong,” the court’s spokesman asserted.

For two Chinese citizens co-accused with the Albanian Klaudio Kanani, the court decided execution by hanging, while for two others, execution by firing squad in front of the public.

Last year, Klaudio Kanani escaped the death penalty after a series of diplomatic efforts by the then foreign minister Igli Hasani, who on this issue held several meetings with China’s ambassador in Tirana.

As well as the involvement of the then justice minister Ulsi Manja and our ambassador to China, Riza Poda.

Contacted by Top Channel, Klaudio Kanani’s family expressed gratitude for what has been done so far by the Albanian state for their son.

They ask for one final effort from ministers Ferit Hoxha and Toni Gogu to take forward, on the basis of the reciprocity agreement with China, the start of the procedures to transfer Klaudio Kanani from China to serve his sentence in Albania, now that the Court of Appeal has also given its decision.