the times | Friday August 28 2020 1GM 21
News
Kickboxer accused
of doorstep killing
of Tunisian heritage, was arrested at
Malmo airport on January 20 and
brought back to Britain. He appeared at
the Old Bailey yesterday by video link
from Belmarsh prison for a plea hear-
ing.
He denied murder and possessing a
prohibited firearm, described as a self-
loading pistol. He was remanded in cus-
tody before a trial set for next July.
Catherine Farrelly, for the prosecu-
tion, had earlier told the court that Mr
Hemissi had flown to the UK four days
before the killing. “The sole purpose of
his trip was essentially to execute the
deceased. The prosecution say this was
an organised hit,” she said. “Within an
hour of the hit taking place, he then
flew to Copenhagen.”
Mr Beqiri, a Swedish citizen with
Albanian heritage, had been living in
London for four or five years at the time
of his murder. A former gangster,
he ran a record company in
London called 2020rec.
He met his wife, Debora
Krasniqi, on Facebook and
they married in a lavish
ceremony on Lake
Como in Italy in Octo-
ber 2018.
The wedding made the
national news in Albania
— Mr Beqiri’s sister took
her partner, Jake Hall,
who starred in the reality
TV show The Only Way is
Essex..John Simpson Crime Correspondent
SKY NEWS/PAH
undreds of
people had to
spend a night
away from
home after a
freight train carrying
diesel came off the track
and burst into flames
(Graeme Paton writes).
Residents in
Llangennech, south
Wales, were taken to aschool and community
centre after the fire at
about 11.20pm on
Wednesday. The two
people on the train were
unhurt.
Police created an 800mexclusion zone and went
from house to house
asking people to leave for
their own safety. Louise
Perkins, who lives close
by, told the BBC that “as
we left it was just fire —you could see balls of it
puffing up”. The cause of
the accident is being
investigated by British
Transport Police, the
Office of Rail and Road
and the Rail Accident
Investigation Branch.
It happened a fortnight
after a landslip caused a
train to derail at high
speed in Aberdeenshire,
killing three people and
injuring six others.Homes are
evacuated as
freight train
catches fire
The derailed diesel tanks
yesterday morning, and
the walls of flame near
Llangennech at the height
of the blaze late the
previous nightA kickboxer has denied carrying out an
“organised hit” on the brother of a
former reality TV star.
Anis Fouad Hemissi, 23, allegedly
shot dead Flamur Beqiri, 36, on his
doorstep in London on Christmas Eve
last year. The victim was the brother of
Misse Beqiri, who appeared on The Real
Housewives of Cheshire and was mar-
ried to Anders Lindegaard, a former
goalkeeper for Manchester United,
until 2016.
Mr Beqiri was shot several times in
front of his screaming wife and
young child at about 9pm. The
family had just returned
to their home in Batter-
sea, southwest Lon-
don. Neighbours said
they heard eight to ten
loud bangs.
It is claimed that the
defendant flew to the
UK with the sole pur-
pose of killing Mr Beqiri,
then travelled to Copen-
hagen. Mr Hemissi, who is
Anis Fouad
Hemissi denies
shooting Flamur
Beqiri in front of
his wife, Debora
Krasniqi