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NAME/ Shkodran's justification for escaping extradition from Britain: Prisons are overcrowded!

2025-05-02 13:28:40Aktualitet SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX
NAME/ Shkodran's justification for escaping extradition from Britain:
Edmond Arra

An Albanian armed robber, who fled to the United Kingdom after an Italian court sentenced him to more than ten years in prison, is fighting extradition, arguing that Italian prisons are overcrowded, the British newspaper The Times reports.

Edmond Arra , 35, has been detained in England for more than a year.

He claims that extradition would violate his rights under Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

The Albanian gangster opposes extradition to 'overcrowded' prisons, for possessing and using a stolen semi-automatic Beretta and a 25cm blade knife; damaging property; burning a car used for robbery; taking a stolen car and robbing a transport company.

This, despite UK prisons being so overcrowded that last year the government released more than 16,000 prisoners before the end of their sentences.

Arra's first legal attempt to block his extradition was rejected in January at Westminster Magistrates' Court, but he was allowed to appeal to the High Court. He will remain in the UK until all appeal options are exhausted.

The prison population in England and Wales has reached record levels over the past year and currently stands at 88,081 prisoners in 120 prisons. This represents 105 per cent of the normal certified capacity, meaning that many prisoners are sharing cells designed for one person.

Arra entered the UK illegally in 2018 after fleeing Italy, where he still had 10 years and 5 months left to serve on an 11-year and 5-month sentence handed down the previous year. He had escaped while under house arrest.

He had been convicted of 13 criminal offences committed in 2012 and 2013. These included making death threats while attempting to blackmail a club owner in exchange for “guaranteeing order and security”.

He was also convicted of an armed robbery in which handbags and 26,000 euros were stolen from a restaurant; possession of a machine gun and a semi-automatic weapon; possession and use of a stolen Beretta and a 25 cm knife; damage to property; burning of a car used for robbery; taking a stolen car; and robbery of a transport company.

Last year, prisons in England and Wales became so overcrowded that the government released prisoners who had served only 40 percent of their sentences.

Italian judicial authorities requested his extradition in June 2023 and in March last year British police arrested him at his home in Crystal Palace, south London.

During his extradition hearing at Westminster Magistrates' Court in January, he used an expert witness on the Italian criminal justice system to argue that Italian prisons violate his rights under the ECHR.

Elisabetta Zamparutti presented an “expert report” on detention conditions in Italian prisons. In August, 190 prisons had 46,898 places but housed 61,465 prisoners. The average overcrowding was 131 percent and in 50 prisons the overcrowding rate exceeded 150 percent. In five prisons it was over 190 percent. However, none of these were Vicenza or Padova, which were the prisons designated by the Italian authorities for Arra’s transfer.

Zamparutti said there was a "structural and systemic problem of overcrowding that persists in Italian prisons."

Arra also said that extradition would violate Article 8 of the ECHR, which protects the right to family life. He would be separated from his Romanian girlfriend, whom he met in November 2023.

Arra stated that dangerous criminals had forced him to commit the crimes and that since 2012 his record had been clean.

He said: “One of the people I was accused of was serving a 28-year sentence. Everyone knows him. I had no criminal record from 2012 to 2024. I escaped to change my life.”

District Judge Hina Raj dismissed his case on January 17. She said: “I am satisfied that extradition would be consistent with Edmond Arra’s rights within the meaning of the Human Rights Act 1998.

“I have specifically decided that there is no violation of Article 3. I am also satisfied that there is no violation of Article 8 and that his extradition would not be disproportionate.”

The English prosecution confirmed that Arra has appealed this decision and that another hearing will be held in the High Court./ Tch


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