Albanian robber can remain in UK despite lying about nationality and criminal past

An Albanian armed robber has won a court appeal to remain in the UK despite lying about his nationality to win UK citizenship and failing to reveal his conviction.

Arsimi Murtati, 46, successfully appealed an attempt by the Home Secretary to strip him of his citizenship after he falsely claimed to be Kosovan to stay in the UK and failed to disclose he had served a long jail sentence for armed robbery in Albania.

An upper tribunal immigration judge said the Home Secretary had failed to prove that Murati knew about the conviction when he applied for leave to remain in the UK as he had been tried for the crime in his absence.

Murtati also claimed that his deportation would be a breach of his right to a family life under  Article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights.

The decision means Murtati will be allowed to remain permanently in the UK.

‘Deport dangerous criminals’

However, the ruling provoked a backlash. “This demonstrates why we need urgent reform of the asylum system and human rights laws to allow the rapid and effective deportation of dangerous criminals,” said a senior Tory MP.

Murtati arrived in the UK in November 1999 to claim asylum as a Kosovan fleeing the civil war in his country. He was accepted as a national of the then federal republic of Yugoslavia and granted indefinite leave to remain before being naturalised as a British citizen in November 2006.

In 2007, the Albanian government issued extradition proceedings against him because, the year before his arrival in the UK, he had been convicted of armed robbery and sentenced, in absentia, to 11-and-a-half years in prison. He was extradited to Albania in 2009 to serve the jail term.

By then, he had married and had three children but his wife died of cancer in October 2012, and his children were placed in local authority care. After his release from prison in 2015, he came back to live in the UK and in September 2019 his children were returned to him.

Concealed his conviction

However, the following year, the then home secretary Priti Patel moved to strip him of his citizenship because he had obtained it through fraud, false representation and concealing his conviction.

In his appeal, Murtati agreed that he had lied about being Kosovan but maintained he had not gained British citizenship as a result of the false claim.

He also claimed he had been unaware of his trial for armed robbery in Albania and that the first he knew about his conviction was when extradition proceedings began.

“He further submitted that as the sole carer for his children it would be a disproportionate interference with his Article 8 family life [rights] to deprive him of his British nationality,” court documents state.

The court accepted his claims and rejected the Home Office’s arguments on the basis that it could not prove he knew about the conviction and should, therefore, have declared it.