Gezim Cela v Government of Albania

Facts

The applicant, Gezim Cela, is sought by the Government of Albania for extradition to serve a ten-year prison sentence imposed in December 2018 for a group export of some 50kg of cannabis from Albania to Kosovo in October 2015. He came to the UK in 2018 and was eventually arrested on the extradition request in May 2025, when he was tracked down at the place where his asylum appeal was due to be heard. He applied to the High Court for bail pending his extradition hearing at Westminster Magistrates Court, listed for 28 October 2026. Through Mr Hepburne Scott he relied on his community and family links, relatives in the UK and a five-year relationship with a UK-based partner, an outstanding asylum appeal, the absence of any UK convictions, an explanation that he had worked cash in hand because of his immigration status, and a package of conditions including a residence condition with an electronically-monitored nightly curfew, police reporting, travel-hub and travel-document prohibitions, and an aggregate £24,000 in pre-release security offered by three named friends. The Government of Albania opposed bail, relying on documentary evidence of fugitivity and on two witness statements from Mr Briggs of the National Crime Agency describing the search for the applicant in the UK.