A hitman raised in the Home Counties was jailed for life without parole on Thursday after gunning down an Albanian businessman in a £1million blood feud assassination suspected of being organised from the UK.
Ruben Saraiva, who grew up in Reading, Berkshire, from the age of four, was disguised as a delivery driver when he strolled into the five-star hotel in a Balkan seaside resort owned by Ardian Nikulaj and blasted him six times.
The ruthless killer had flown from London to Albania two months before the April 2023 attack as the key member of an alleged British hit squad – said to also include a young mother from Bristol – hired to carry out the operation, prosecutors allege.
Amid tight security at Lezhe Court in northern Albania, Senior Judge Lirim Bulica told Saraiva he would spend the rest of his life in a high security prison after finding him guilty of premeditated murder in collaboration with others and illegal possession of weapons.
Dressed in a black Nike tracksuit as he stood a few yards from his victim’s wife, Saraiva shook his head in the glass fronted dock as the judgement was delivered.
The murder was allegedly masterminded by the member of a rival Albanian family now based in the UK who suspected father-of-four Nikulaj of killing one of their relatives as part of ‘blood feud’ between the families which has lasted nearly three decades and already claimed nine lives.
The Britons were selected to carry out the operation because, while Nikulaj was on the alert for potential local assassins, he would never have suspected any danger from visitors from England, prosecutors allege.
Saraiva laid in wait in a nearby stairwell of an apartment block for several days while the other Britons checked in to Nikulaj’s newly opened hotel in the seaside resort of Shengjin in northern Albania where they allegedly posed as tourists to spy on him and his family who also worked there.
Ardian Nikulaj was sitting at a table when Ruben Saraiva strolled into a five-star hotel in a Balkan seaside resort
Saraiva (pictured inside a court in Lezha) who grew up in Reading from the age of four has been jailed for life
They are said to have accepted free meals from their unsuspecting victim, chatted with his wife and befriended his then 13-year-old-son as they tracked their target’s movements before one gave the signal for Saraiva to strike.
Horrific CCTV footage captured the moment the now 30-year-old gunman – dressed as in a high viz jacket, motorbike helmet and surgical mask – walks into the hotel’s bar and brandishes the Soviet made pistol before opening fire.
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Saraiva fled the murder scene on a motorbike and crossed the border on foot from Albania to Greece a few hours later, but was arrested after subsequently entering Morocco on fake documents and extradited to Albania to face trial.
It is not known how much Saraiva was offered for his role in the operation, but Nikulaj’s family said they had been warned previously that other potential local assassins had previously turned down almost £1million to kill him.
Saraiva was born to Portuguese parents who emigrated to the UK when he was aged four.
He split his time between his father’s home in Reading, Berkshire and his mother’s home in South London. He has convictions in the UK for drug dealing and knife crime in the UK.
Despite living most of his life in the UK, his parents never applied for citizenship so he remains a Portuguese citizen.
On February 14th 2023 he was collected from Tirana airport by British-Albanian Edmond Haxhia who is accused of organising the gang to target Nikulaj.
Haxhia, who lives in Birmingham, is the first cousin of two men from the Lekstakaj family which is embroiled in the long running blood feud with the Nikulaj family, prosecutors told the court.
Under Albanian blood feud tradition, a family must avenge a relative’s murder by killing a male member of the killer’s family – who then have to do the same in return – in an ongoing cycle of bloodshed.
Saraiva had flown from London to Albania two months before gunning down Ardian Nikulaj (pictured) in April 2023
The murder was allegedly orchestrated by a member of a rival Albanian family, now based in the UK, who suspected Nikulaj of killing one of their relatives in a ‘blood feud’
Nikulaj is believed to have been targeted because he is accused of gunning down a Lekstakaj family member in 1997- itself said to be as revenge for the murder of his elder brother after a row over a £15 petrol payment which began the feud. The Nikulaj family deny he was a killer.
Haxhia and the other Britons accused of being part of the surveillance team, Harriet Bridgeman, 28, and Thomas Mithan, 35, Steven Hunt, 50, who are all from Bristol, and Harry Simpson, 33, from South London, returned to the UK shortly before or immediately after the shooting, prosecutor Arben Nika told the court.
They were later arrested are currently awaiting to hear the judgment in their appeal against extradition to Albania to face trial. They all deny involvement in the attack.
In a statement, the Nikulaj family welcomed today’s hearing as ‘step forward in delivering justice for Ardian’ but expressed concern at the delay in extraditing other suspects from the UK.
Haxhia was accused of being part of a surveillance team with other Britons, Harriet Bridgeman, 28, and Thomas Mithan, 35, Steven Hunt, 50, who are all from Bristol, and Harry Simpson, 33, from South London
They added: ‘The brutality of Ardian’s execution with six bullets by Ruben Saraiva, who is now convicted by the Albanian justice, is a wound that will never heal—especially for Ardian’s children, who are growing up without the warmth of their father.’
‘Despite today’s decision regarding Ruben Saraiva, we continue to feel hurt by the fact that Ardian treated all the British individuals who came to his hotel as tourists and treated by him with a deep respect, but in reality, we suspect had come with the intention of surveilling him so that he could later be killed by their accomplice, Ruben Saraiva.’
They added there would be ‘no full justice for Ardian and no peace for the Nikulaj family’ unless those who ordered and financed the murder are ‘identified and brought to justice.’
Outside court, Saraiva’s solicitor Kujtim Cakrani said he planned to appeal.
