logo
Football stadium bomb plotter appeals to stay in UK ‘because Albanian gangs will kill me'

Football stadium bomb plotter appeals to stay in UK ‘because Albanian gangs will kill me'

Telegraph31-03-2025

A convicted terrorist who planned to bomb a football stadium is appealing against his deportation because he will be 'executed for revenge' by rival gangsters if returned to Albania.
Maksim Cela, 59, travelled to the UK on a fake passport to be with his family after serving 23 years in jail for killing a policeman and other gang-related activities in the Balkan country, an immigration tribunal heard.
The Albanian claims 'terrifying gang groups' will come after him to resolve a 'blood feud' if he is not allowed to stay.
Home Office lawyers say he is a 'violent terrorist' who should be deported.
At an upper-tier immigration tribunal in central London on Monday, Cela said he was wrongly convicted of the crimes, and that his prosecution had been politically motivated.
Lawyers for the Home Office said he invented the story after learning that his serious offending meant he would not be able to claim asylum.
Cela claimed he used to be a businessman, running a car dealership business in Germany, as well as having worked in a dental clinic and a hospital.
But the tribunal heard he was a 'violent terrorist' who planned to detonate a bomb at a 12,000-seat football stadium in 2000. After the plot came to light in 2001, an Albanian court jailed him for five years.
He was sentenced to 25 years jail in September 2006 for 'participation in criminal organisations', the murder of a police officer, and the manufacture and illegal possession of weapons and ammunition, the tribunal was told.
He was released in December 2022, having served more than 23 years of his 25-year sentence.
In December 2022 he left Albania for Spain, travelled to Italy and then flew to the UK on what he admitted was a false passport, arriving at Heathrow in January 2023.
When he was initially interviewed by the Home Office, Cela claimed that 'three terrifying gang groups' were 'coming after' him and his family because he was a member of the 'Lushnje gang', the tribunal heard.
Changing his story
A letter to the Home Office written on his behalf said rival gang members would 'execute him for revenge' if he returned to Albania.
Cela has since changed his story, Home Office lawyers have said, claiming he was never really a member of the gang but had been set up.
'It was politically motivated,' said Cela, who represented himself at the hearing and spoke through an interpreter.
'I was merely a businessman,' he added.
The Albanian told the tribunal there were four attempts to kill him while he was in prison.
The Home Office said he had exaggerated the threat from rival gangs, and could get protection from the Albanian authorities or relocate to another area of the country should he be deported.
Paul Skinner, representing the Home Office, asked Cela: 'It's right that you are someone who does and says whatever you want in order to get what you want, isn't it?
'You really want to be in the UK to be with your wife and daughter and you are willing to do whatever it takes in order to stay.
'The Albanian state is taking steps to obviate the risks that Mr Cela may face.'
Cela's asylum claim was rejected by a judge at the first-tier immigration tribunal, but a separate claim that his life was at risk from rival gangs was accepted.
His claim was based on the European Convention on Human Rights' Article Three which prohibits 'torture or inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment'.
After an appeal by the Home Office, a panel of judges set aside the ruling, finding that there had been an 'error of law'.
The upper-tier tribunal will now make a decision on whether Cela can stay.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Man who was spotted fleeing Heathrow airport staff on the tarmac was 'being deported from Britain on a commercial flight' 
Man who was spotted fleeing Heathrow airport staff on the tarmac was 'being deported from Britain on a commercial flight' 

Daily Mail​

time36 minutes ago

  • Daily Mail​

Man who was spotted fleeing Heathrow airport staff on the tarmac was 'being deported from Britain on a commercial flight' 

A man who was filmed being chased across the tarmac Heathrow Airport, was an illegal migrant who was set to be deported from the UK. The man had escaped prior to boarding a commercial flight which was due to depart to India, MailOnline understands. He was being escorted to the UK by contractors Mitie Care & Custody on behalf of the Home Office. However the man managed to get away from his security escorts and made it out of the airport. He was then captured on video by a member of the public, who shared the footage on social media. The man was spotted being chased by at least four other men as he raced across the airport grounds near Terminal 2. He was pursued for around a minute before he is eventually stopped. After managing to evade airport staff on foot, a van appears and two men jump out to capture the runaway man. He was escorted away from the planes by the two men. The police were later seen arriving. The man was pinned to the ground as he was arrested by the police. The man was then returned to the flight and deported from the UK. A spokesperson for Mitie said: 'An investigation into the incident is underway. The individual was quickly apprehended, re-boarded the flight, and was handed over to the relevant authorities on landing.' The Home Office are understood to be investigating the incident. During the video, the narrator becomes increasingly frustrated by the bizarre situation unfolding in front of him. He said: 'What is going on here. Why would there be people running? That geezer is running from someone, they are chasing him. 'What is going on? Isn't there anyone fit enough to take him down.' Becoming more frustrated by witnessing the man still not caught, he said: 'They are going to have to stop the operations, they are going to have to stop aircraft moving, he is running straight towards them.' After the man was stopped, the narrator added: 'What the hell was that all about. 'They are stopping aircraft taxiing as well. 'If that was America there would be 50 vehicles there by now, 700 police. One bloke.' A Heathrow spokesperson said: 'Working with partners, we have quickly resolved an incident at the airport involving an individual who accessed the airfield taxiway. 'The individual has been removed from the airport.

Footage shows immigration detainee running across Heathrow runway
Footage shows immigration detainee running across Heathrow runway

The Guardian

timean hour ago

  • The Guardian

Footage shows immigration detainee running across Heathrow runway

A man was apprehended on the tarmac at Heathrow airport after he managed to free himself from restraints and started running away near Terminal 2 on Sunday. He was reportedly about to be deported to India when he managed to escape. A spokesperson for Mitie, which holds a Home Office contract for removing people from the UK, told the Guardian: 'An investigation into the incident is under way. The individual was quickly apprehended, reboarded the flight, and was handed over to the relevant authorities on landing'

Police allowed convicted Neo-Nazi 'who groomed and radicalised British girl before she was found dead' to leave the UK
Police allowed convicted Neo-Nazi 'who groomed and radicalised British girl before she was found dead' to leave the UK

Daily Mail​

time18 hours ago

  • Daily Mail​

Police allowed convicted Neo-Nazi 'who groomed and radicalised British girl before she was found dead' to leave the UK

A convicted American neo-Nazi was permitted to leave the UK by police despite being known for 'grooming and radicalising' Britain's youngest ever girl to be charged with terror offences. Dax Mallaburn was questioned by counter-terrorism officers at Heathrow Airport having been suspected of encouraging 16-year-old Rhianan Rudd to look at violent material online. Despite such suspicions, the decision was still taken to allow Mallaburn to leave the UK without any further action, the Daily Telegraph has reported. He boarded a flight to the US, where he then travelled on to Mexico, in October 2020. Having been assessed as a 'medium risk of radicalisation' by experts, Rudd was nonetheless later charged by the CPS with six counts of terrorism in April 2021, the youngest individual in British history to ever receive such charges. However, in December 2022, the charges against the vulnerable and autistic schoolgirl were dropped with the Home Office ruling that she had been a victim of grooming. Rudd downloaded guides on how to make a pipe bomb, homemade weapons and guerilla warfare and also scratched a swastika into her forehead. Just five months later, on May 19 2022, she was found dead at a children's home by her carer in Nottinghamshire. During an inquest into the circumstances surrounding Rudd's death, Chesterfield Coroners Court heard that she had began to show signs of far-Right radicalisation after Mallaburn moved into the family home in Bolsover, Derbyshire, with her mother, Emily Carter, in 2017. Mallaburn, who met Ms Carter through an inmate pen-pal scheme, had previously been found by a US Supreme Court ruling to be a member of a neo-Nazi group and had also served prison time in the US for possession of weapons. In 2019, Rudd, then aged 14, complained to Derbyshire County Council social workers, who themselves had suspicions that she was being groomed, that Mallaburn had touched her sexually. However, when police later visited Rudd at her home address, she retracted the allegations. Just days before she took her own life, the teen told a counter-terrorism official that Mallaburn, who she described as a 'literal Nazi' was explaining to her what 'really happened' during the Second World War. Mallaburn also introduced the impressionable teenager to fellow US white supremacist Chris Cook, who provided her with clear instructions on how to make homemade bombs and weapons. In September 2020, Ms Carter reported her concerns about her daughter to anti-radicalisation programme Prevent. The inquest heard that she had been unaware of Mallaburn's influence on her young teenager. In a letter addressed to counter-terrorism police, Ms Carter said that Rudd had developed an 'unhealthy outlook on fascism' and harboured a 'massive dislike for certain races and creeds.' When the youngster was visited by local police at her school, she confirmed her interest in the extreme right and told police she had met an American 'neo-Nazi' over the online gaming platform, Discord. Classmates told school leaders that Rudd had revealed her intention to 'kill someone in school or blow up a Jewish place of worship', counsel to the inquest Edward Pleeth said. 'She said she doesn't care who she kills and nothing matters any more,' a school log shown at the hearing stated. Drawings found in her school bag included sketches of a man giving a Nazi salute. A child protection team from Derbyshire County Council later found that both Mallaburn and Cook had encouraged the young teen to 'look at violent material'. 'Suspicions of radicalisation' related to Rudd were then passed on by counter-terrorism police by MI5. On October 21 2020, just two weeks after Mallaburn had been allowed to board his flight from Heathrow, Rhianan was arrested by East Midlands counter-terror police. Bailed as a terror suspect, she was removed from school and placed in a children's home. While the charges were later dropped, Rudd's mother believed that the pressure of the investigation ultimately took its toll on her young daughter who she said should have been treated 'as a victim rather than a terrorist'. A close friend of the teen's family, Ann, had begun an affair with Mallaburn by the time Rhianan had been arrested. Having later relocated to Mexico to be with him, she told the Daily Telegraph that while he had been 'interviewed by the FBI about Rhianan and her online relationship with a man in Ohio', she firmly believed that he had 'never been charged with any race crime'. Whitehall sources told the publication that the Home Office had put 'robust safeguards in place to ensure that those who intend to sow hatred and division can be refused entry to our country'. Adding that it is a 'police decision' to decide whether an individual is unable to leave the country, they added: 'They make the call on whether it is possible and appropriate to confiscate an individual's passport to prevent their departure'. East Midlands counter-terror police refused to comment ahead of the coroner's findings.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store