FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
An Albanian mother of three, including a newborn baby, has become the first woman to be extradited from Britain to her country of birth to face imprisonment.
Judge John Zani upheld the extradition of Lirie Delishi, 25, after ruling that the risk of Britain being seen as a "safe haven" for criminals outweighed her claims that her extradition would violate her rights to a family life under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
Albanian prosecutors have requested Delishi's extradition to serve a four-month prison sentence after she was caught using a forged Romanian passport while trying to fly from Tirana to Rome in 2019.
She was pregnant with her third child when she appealed the decision at an extradition hearing at Westminster Magistrates' Court, saying it would be "terrible" for her two eldest children to be separated from her and their younger sibling.
She said her partner, named Edmond, will probably miss the first few months of their third child's life. "It will be very difficult for me to be without him during those important months and I will miss my other children very much," she said.
"I know Edmond will have to cut back on his hours at work, or maybe even close one of the businesses to focus on the children. That might mean we have to sell the house. I try not to think about extradition because of the impact it will have on my family."
Her partner presented evidence that he ran two businesses in the UK, one a construction company with one other employee and a car wash employing his brother and two other men. "I think I would have to close at least one of them. That could mean some people losing their jobs," he told the court.
Delishi is believed to still be in the UK awaiting an appeal against the verdict, but is expected to serve her sentence with her baby in Albania's only women's prison - Pojska prison. It has a capacity for 110 women.
She studied computer engineering in Albania, where she graduated in 2019, before moving to the UK to be with her partner, whom she had met in 2018. “I have not had an official marriage with my husband, but we consider ourselves married because we have been living together since 2019 and have children together,” she told the court.
“I was still at university, so I finished my studies before coming to join my husband. I came to the UK very soon after I graduated. I have a big family in Albania and I get on well with them, but my life is in the UK. I am settled in the UK with my husband and children. I couldn’t bear the idea of being separated from them,” she said.
Lini një Përgjigje