Flamur Beqiri: Swedish hitman jailed for doorstep murder
- Published
A Swedish hitman who murdered a father-of-two in front of his family has been jailed for life.
Flamur Beqiri, 36, was shot dead in front of his screaming wife as she shielded their two-year-old son.
The murder happened on the doorstep of his £1.7 million home in Battersea, south-west London, on Christmas Eve in 2019.
Anis Hemissi, 24, was handed a life sentence with a minimum term of 35 years at Southwark Crown Court.
Mr Beqiri, the brother of the Real Housewives Of Cheshire star Misse Beqiri, was a kingpin in an international drugs gang and was targeted as part of a feud with a rival organised crime group.
Mr Beqiri, who had joint Swedish and Albanian nationality, claimed to be in the music business but had been involved in the international drugs trade since 2007.
Hemissi was hired as an assassin to fly into London to carry out the murder, which was planned for up to six months.
The professional kickboxer rode a distinctive ladies' bike, wore a latex mask and disguised himself as a litter picker to carry out reconnaissance.
He then shot Mr Beqiri eight times from behind, as part of a tit-for-tat gang war.
Hemissi was found guilty of murder and possession of a firearm.
Accomplice Estevan Pino-Munizaga, 35, travelled to the capital for around 14 hours in November 2019.
He rented the flat where Hemissi stayed in Oyster Wharf, visited Mr Beqiri's house nearby, and bought the ladies' bicycle.
He was jailed for 15 years, of which he will serve two thirds, after being acquitted of murder but found guilty of manslaughter.
Clifford Rollox, 31, from Islington, north London, and Dutch national Claude Isaac Castor, 31, from Sint Maarten in the Caribbean, were each jailed for three years.
They were found guilty of perverting the course of justice, having been hired locally to clean up and remove evidence, including the gun, from the flat.
Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said there was "no doubt" that Hemissi was "a gun for hire" in "international crime at its most brutal".
She said: "The intricate planning that enabled you to arrive in London just a few days before shooting that man dead in front of his family as they were walking to their front door on Christmas Eve, also enabled you to leave the country within hours of his death.
"You carried out an audacious execution intended to induce terror in south-west London in those associated with Flamur Beqiri.
"But not only in this city - the impact was felt thousands of miles away because its origin is in the battle between callous gangs who disregard borders to commit crime, including targeted killings."
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