The United States has extradited Sokol Hoxha to Albania, the triple murderer who had been on the run for 30 years. Hoxha was arrested on May 5 in Ohio and is accused of killing the Banaj brothers in Patos and an Albanian woman in Belgium in 1997.
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Albanian authorities have sentenced him to 25 years in prison, while he is also wanted by Belgian authorities to serve the life sentence handed down for the murder of Brunilda Dervishi.
After committing the double murder in his hometown, Hoxha fled, initially hiding in Greece before moving to Belgium.
According to a years-long investigation, Sokol Hoxha’s main activity in Belgium was prostitution, an activity that also became the motive for a murder he committed in that country.
Hoxha is suspected of having staged a marriage to Brunilda Hoxha in order to exploit her, and later shot her dead in a venue in Brussels after she refused to obey his orders.
After the crime in Belgium, Hoxha left for the United Kingdom using a false identity as a Kosovar refugee, a well-known tactic through which he also secured residency.
He thus began a new life under a completely different identity, but still carrying the heavy burden of three victims in Albania and Belgium.
More than two decades later, Albanian investigative agencies received information that Hoxha was in the United States, after American, Belgian, British and Kosovar law-enforcement agencies became involved in exchanging information about the criminal.
Following his arrest in the United States, Albanian authorities began communicating with their Belgian counterparts regarding the transfer to Albania of the criminal judgment handed down by the Belgian justice system, with the aim of coordinating procedures for serving the sentences.
Upon his arrival in Albania, Sokol Hoxha will undergo legal procedures for the enforcement of the decision by the Albanian courts, while legal steps are also expected to be taken regarding the request from the Belgian authorities.
