Cupi v The Government of Albania

Mr Justice Jeremy Baker:

This is an appeal, under section 103(1) of the Extradition Act 2003 , (“ the 2003 Act ”), against the decision of District Judge Tempia, dated 26 th May 2016, to send a case to the Secretary of State for the Home Department for a decision as to whether Gjergj Cupi, (“the appellant”), should be extradited to Albania.

The main ground of appeal, for which permission was granted by the single judge, is that, having determined that the appellant had not deliberately absented himself from his trial, the District Judge was wrong to conclude that, for the purposes of section 85(5) of the 2003 Act , she was sure that the appellant would be entitled to a re-trial upon his return to Albania. The second ground, for which permission was granted, is that, as the offence of murder took place in the context of a blood feud, the District Judge was wrong to conclude that extradition would not violate his rights under Articles 2 and 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, (“ECHR”).

The appeal is resisted by the Government of Albania, (“the respondent”).

Factual background

On 23 rd February 1999 the appellant was tried and convicted in his absence by the First Instance Court of Mirdita of two offences of murder, two offences of attempted murder and one offence of possession of a firearm, and was subsequently sentenced to serve a period of 25 years’ imprisonment.

The written decision of the court records, inter alia, that,

“….it was found that the defendant Gjergj Cupi is an inhabitant in the village Kacinar, of the commune Kacinar. As the result of the feud between the family Cupi and Ndreca, which dates back in 1992, Petrit Cupi was killed. At that time, the defendant Mirash Ndreca (the victim) was sentenced to 22 years’ imprisonment and he suffered punishment in the respective places until the moment when the prisons were opened in March 1997. As the defendant (the victim), Mirash Ndreca, escaped from the place where he was suffering the punishment, the defendant Gjergj Cupi came up with the criminal idea to revenge for his brother, profiting even from the unfavourable situation the state went through from January to June 1997, when all the population was armed as the ammunition depots were opened.

The defendant got the gun to commit the crime and on 27.07.1997, he committed the premeditated murder of the victim Mirash Ndreca and of the other people, at the place called ‘Karburanti i vjeter’, at the town of Rreshen. Consequently, the o