Yesterday, at the premises of the Lezha Police, Ruben Saraiva, the Portuguese citizen charged with murder for blood feud, was re-interrogated.
He was extradited on the last day of the year we left behind from Morocco and brought before our justice where he is accused of being the person who took the life of Ardian Nikulaj about a month before the local elections in our country. The victim was not only a member of the Municipal Council, where he was running again, but also a well-known businessman in the city of Lezha. Nikulaj was killed in one of his businesses, and the person who was tracked down for that murder was Ruben Saraiva, a tourist who came to our country.
He has been questioned several times, but yesterday, according to confidential sources, the Prosecutor’s Office tried to offer him the possibility of cooperation by presenting beneficial conditions if he enters into an agreement with the justice bodies. However, what he testified from the beginning before the prosecutors of Lezha, but also from yesterday’s testimony, it is known that Saraiva denied the murder, denied the accusations, rejected the prosecution’s agreement and denied his acquaintance with Edmond Haxhiaj. the young man arrested in London as the person who organized and financed the assassination that shocked Albania on April 19, 2023.
THE TESTIMONY OF SARAIVA
Under strict security measures, accompanied by dozens of police forces, Ruben Saraiva was taken yesterday morning from the custody of “313” and sent to Lezha where it is learned that he was interrogated. Local media brought footage from Lezha of the place where the extradited and accused as the executioner of businessman Ardian Nikulaj was being questioned.
He stayed there for nearly 3 hours, while it is known that he has always remained in a position of denial for all the accusations that have been brought against him. In fact, at the beginning of the time, but also in the hearing of the reassignment of the security measure, Saraiva insisted, accusing the Albanian justice system of putting him in blood with the Albanian family, and as a result, he now fears not only for himself but also for the people of the family, since according to him, murder for blood feud affects the members of the family. But what stands out about his entire refusal is the fact that he denies ever having met Edmond Haxhiaj, while the Prosecution has in its file facts, evidence, testimonies and film footage that show the opposite.
According to the investigation file, Ruben Saraiva was received in Rinas by Edmond Haxhia and the latter gave him the use of his motorcycle that he had bought in the name of his fiancee, which for the prosecution turns out to be the vehicle that was used by the killer on the day that Ardian Nikulaj was executed in the premises of the Coral restaurant in Shengjin. Likewise, the prosecution in the investigation file informs that Saraiva was also at Haxhiaj’s house in Kakarriq of Lezha and even stayed for a long time in the village. But the refusal to recognize the boy from Lezha has caused the prosecution to search again for other footage that proves the friendship between the accused as the perpetrator of the murder and the Lezha resident accused of financing and organizing the sensational murder. Edmond Haxhia is arrested in London on account of our justice together with some British citizens, where the Prosecutor’s Office and the Ministry of Justice are doing everything to extradite them and bring them to our country to face the charges of “Murder for revenge”!
TRIALS AND MURDERS
The prosecution said earlier that the footage proved that the Portuguese played the role of the businessman’s executor, while he was also helped by four British citizens, who posed as tourists, Stephen Hunt, Thomas Mithan, Harriet Bridgeman and Harry Simson, to who still do not have an extradition decision in Albania and all of them are arrested in Britain.
Referring to the data coming from London, it is reported that Edmond Haxhia is expected to appear in court at the beginning of March this year for the extradition issue, while it is not known when the request for the rest of the accused group will be considered. However, the Police and the Prosecutor’s Office of Lezha, who claim to have shed light on one of the most sensational events of the past year, have not been able to arrest a single person for the two consecutive executions that took place after Nikulaj’s murder. In July, Nikolin Lekstakaj was executed and a short time later, the first cousin of the deceased businessman, Entjan Nikulaj, was also killed in an ambush. Regarding the murder of Lekstakaj, in the middle of the day and in the middle of the street, the Police did not provide any other information except the fact that it is suspected that he was killed for blood feud.
He accompanied several people who were released and the event remained without perpetrators and without motives. Even, a rare case in recent assassinations, not even a burned car was found to make it possible to destroy the evidence. While the execution of Entjan Nikulaj became organized and the assassins committed the crime on the street of Milot, while the car was burned between Nikla and Rinas to lose the tracks and leave the murder of the young man unsolved!/panorama
