Killer Albanian mafia kingpin 'is free to walk the streets of Britain' after claiming he'd be murdered in his home country - and he has cost taxpayers £10,000s fighting deportation
A gangster who murdered a policeman is said to be free to walk on the streets of Britain after claiming he'd be killed in his home country.
Mafia kingpin, Maksim Cela, 59, was reportedly detained in the UK just days after serving half of a 25-year life sentence for murder and terrorism in Albania.
He has cost taxpayers 10s of thousands of pounds fighting deportation and allegedly argues it would be a breach of human rights to send him home as he would be at risk from rival mobsters.
Alarmingly, Cela is currently out on bail pending a decision to deport - and was free to roam British streets last night, The Sun reported.
He is believed to have flown here from Spain using a fake passport before being detained and launching a ploy to stay on asylum and European human rights grounds.
Cela's asylum claim was refused by a judge at the First Tier immigration tribunal.
But a separate claim - that he would have a target on his back if he returned to Albania - was controversially accepted.
It's basis was the European Convention on Human Rights' Article Two, which guarantees 'right to life', and Article Three, which prohibits 'torture or inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment'.
The Home Secretary appealed against the ruling, which was later found to have been an 'error of law'.
The Upper Tier Tribunal will decide whether Cela can remain in the UK during a two-day hearing from March 31.
Even if Cela loses, he can make further appeals to higher courts which will keep him here until the expensive process is over.
Cela was jailed for planning the AK47 murder of policeman Klenti Bano and plotting to detonate a bomb at a football stadium.
Following his release he had planned to disappear into Britain's Albanian community but was caught as soon as he arrived.
Cela was initially held at Colnbrook Immigration Removal Centre near Heathrow but he is now at large after being granted bail.
Tory ex-Home Office Minister Kevin Foster was appalled by the decision and said it was 'yet another example of human rights lunacy in our courts.'
He added: 'It's scandalous any judge could think this dangerous terrorist's 'rights' were more important than the right to be safe in this country from dangerous men like him.'
