Belgium, this small kingdom in northwestern Europe, with a population of just over 11 million, has become in recent years the favorite bloody arena of Albanian gangs.
Gangs that started their criminal activity in Albania in the '90s, but that with sophistication began to expand their activity in European countries.
Among them in the small country, on the shores of the North Sea, known for its proximity to some of the most important ports of entry of drugs in Europe, such as the port of Antwerp (Antuerpit) in Belgian territory, or that of Rotterdam in the Netherlands.
Where the influence in drug trafficking has been significantly associated with many killed and injured among Albanians. The latest "victim" of the bullets in Belgium is the Albanian Erion Hasanbelli.
He was shot in the back with 6 bullets, at noon on June 11, 2022, while standing in front of a hotel on the boulevard "Adolphe Maxlaan" (Adolf Maxlan) located in the center of Brussels.
Views were shocked even by the citizens present at the scene, unfamiliar with such open scenes of violence.
The hotel receptionist
"We have no idea who the victim is. But the hotel security camera has filmed everything. "My colleague was the one who saw what happened and is in shock."
Luckily for him, Erion Hasanbelli made peace again with the barrage of bullets. He underwent immediate surgery at one of Brussels' hospitals and managed to survive despite the serious injuries he sustained.
Martin Francois, Spokesman for the Brussels Prosecutor's Office, “ He was hit by 6 bullets in the back and back. " He was operated on immediately but his life is in danger ."
According to eyewitnesses at the scene, the perpetrators were two people, where one of them allegedly fired several times at their target, then choosing to flee from a side street on the left side of the hotel. According to the description given by a female witness during the crime, the man who shot was hairless and burly.
Only three days after this assassination, in the early hours of the morning, the Vienna police stopped in the Donaustadt (Donastad) neighborhood, the Albanian Cassander Noga, who was getting ready to return to Albania with the next flight. The flight was deliberately delayed at Vienna Airport by local police authorities, to give Noga no chance to escape.
The Austrian authorities had ready for him an international arrest warrant for execution issued by his Belgian colleagues, who had declared him wanted precisely for the injury on June 11, 2022 of Erion Hasanbelli.
Cassander Noga, a much-talked-about name in the underworld a few years ago, did not resist arrest, even expressing his surprise when Viennese police raided his apartment, minutes before he left to leave. to Albania.
But what were the clashes between Cassander Noga and Erion Hasanbelli, which ended in numerous bullets fired at the latter?
Who are these two characters and what do their names mean in the underworld? Why has Belgium turned into a bulletproof vest for them and many other Albanians?
To find out why these two characters addressed each other with the language of weapons, it is of interest to look back at their criminal past and present.
According to the dynamics of events, their first major collision would date back to 2000, in what is known as the "Sanatorium Massacre". There, in a hospital room, the bloody oath of allegiance between two rivals begins.
On August 19, 2000, at around 4:00 pm, Kasandër Noga and Julian Çela were rushed to the Sanatorium Hospital in Tirana with automatic weapons, and after the serums were removed from their arms, they cruelly killed Aqif Hasanbelli, Erion and Geron Hasanbelli's father and Dritan Hajdini. Geron's friend. Agron and Gentian Hasanbelli and Lavdosh Karaj were also injured.
Serious event which came two weeks after in Patos, Cassander Noga was confronted with Gentian, brother of Erion and Geron Hasanbelli, but which would also be the beginning of a long and endless revenge between Cassander Noga on one side and the brothers Hasanbelli on the other hand, who would already move the oath of revenge from Tirana to Belgium. Earlier, Cassander Noga, is suspected of having committed two other murders.
According to a decision of the Supreme Court, he turns out that on March 20, 1999, he shot dead Edison Meminaj with his pistol, at the place called "Hexagon" in Patos. He shot the latter with 3 bullets, after he told his friends that "I hate this man and I will kill him".
The next day, after committing the crime, he threatened his friends, telling them that if they talked about the event, he would kill them as well, Balkan Web quotes.
According to the court file, it turns out that earlier, on February 20, 1999, he was suspected of shooting Kastriot Gropa to death, while the latter was traveling with his friend, Edmir H., in a "BMW" type car in the city of Patos. .
The victim, Kastriot Gropa, was sitting in the passenger seat and at the moment when the vehicle was stopped near the bus station, a person with a jeep on his head approached and shot with a pistol in the direction of the victim.
The suspicions fell on Kassander Noga, because according to an act of ballistic expertise, it turned out that the cartridges found at the place where Edison Meminaj was killed, had been fired from the same weapon with which Kastriot Gropa was shot.
Yes, while he had this pronounced criminal background on his shoulder, Cassander Noga, continued to live free, until in 2000 he took up arms and caused the Sanatorium massacre. The court file states that Kasandër Noga and Julian Çela acted for revenge.
According to the data, Erion emigrated to Italy early and lived and worked in the neighboring country. One day, he communicates with a friend of his, Mariglen Hodaj, who lived in Italy, and gives him a sum of money to send to his father, Aqif, in Patos. But, it seems that Mariglen did not hand over the money, so for this reason a conflict started between him and Erion.
On August 4, 2000, Mariglen Hodaj was killed in the town of Patos, a murder thought to have been committed by Erion Hasanbelli, the son of the victim Aqif Hasanbelli. In this event, the other son of the family, Hasanbelli, Geroni was injured.
The latter, after receiving the first treatment in the hospital of Fier, for security reasons was transferred to the hospital of the Sanatorium, where he was registered under a false name. This is where Cassander Noga comes into play.
Together with Julian Çela, he decides to take revenge for the murder of his friend and goes in search of the Hasanbelli brothers. Studying the movements of their relatives, they arrived at the Sanatorium and caused the massacre with two killed and three wounded.
Cassander Noga said in court at the time that he had intended to kill only Geron Hasanbelli, but when he entered room no. 11 of the hospital in front of him appeared other persons, against whom he and his friend, Julian did not hesitate to shoot at ta.
Thus began the clash between Noga and the Hasanbelli brothers, whose revenge would not be long in coming.
On March 17, 2002, according to the court file, they were found in front of the bar 'Pre-Historie' (Pre Histori) in the city of Antwerp (Antuerpit) in Belgium where Julian Çela and Cassander Noga were having coffee together.
According to the evidence of the time, at 17:15 of this day, Erion Hasanbelli and his brother Geroni, entered the bar and shot mercilessly on the table where their two enemies were sitting, where they left Julian Çela dead. and severely wounded Cassander Noga.
Elena B., local waitress
"Around 17:00 two people entered the bar and ordered a coffee and tea. After about 20 minutes, two other people entered the bar and ordered tea with milk and sat in the same place where the two people who had previously served were sitting who had risen from the table. Suddenly the two persons he had served the first time, coming from the toilet, attacked the two persons sitting by the window.
While he was running, one of them shot at these two people about 5 times. The two then left in the direction of 'Sint-Gummarusstraat'.
The person who shot was wearing a yellow 'Milet' model. He was about 1 meter and 85 cm tall, black hair, round face.
The other person was about 1 meter and 75 cm tall, was wearing a black leather jacket with black hair with unshaven face. "Both were about 25 years old and spoke a language unknown to me, I say it was Albanian."
Two days later, the waitress of the bar where the shocking crime took place, was presented with photos of the six suspects. She pointed her finger at number 4.
Elena B., local waitress
"I can say with 100% certainty that number 4 is the one who shot. It was he who made the payment. The two criminals were served by the owner of the cafe but the person in photo 4 came to me and made me the payment. And I think the person in photo 4 looks like him. "I did not see the second criminal well, but I know he was a little heartbroken."
According to the Belgian file, Cassander Noga, asked immediately after the event, recognized in the photo only the citizen Erion Hasanbelli, saying that 99% of him is the person who shot him.
Investigators questioned him again in November 2002, but he changed his mind and denied knowing the person who shot him and the person accompanying him.
A few years later, in July 2008, Cassander Noga spoke to investigators while serving a life sentence for the Sanatorium massacre, a sentence he would later overturn, and gave another version of what happened at the Pre Historie bar. History) in Antwerp.
Cassander Noga
"Julian Çelaj and I had talked to the defendants on the phone to reconcile about the enmity we had before as a result of the murder of their father.
We left to meet him at the "Pre Historie" bar. We ordered something to drink and waited sitting at the table for about 20 minutes. We saw that Geron Hasanbelli was coming out of the bar to enter the bar, talking on the phone.
When this citizen was about 3 meters without entering the bar, the citizen Erion Hasanbelli came out from the opposite side of the bar, shooting at us with a firearm. I took a bullet in the abdomen and folded my face out of the bar glass.
At that moment, I saw and heard Geron Hasanbelli coming to the door of the bar and grabbing Erion from his left arm, saying "Let's go because we killed them", and I saw them leaving the window.
During this bloody episode, Kasandër Noga, is said to have clashed with a weapon with the Belgian police, which is also confirmed in his Albanian trial file, after his extradition to Albania.
File from which comes a murder committed on August 25, 2001, also in the city of Antwerp (Antuerp) in Belgium, where the suspect was again Cassander Noga, where it is said that the problematic Albanian who had already moved to Belgium after the murder committed in Tirana, shot to death this time against the Albanian, Astrit Shpërdheja.
According to the Belgian media of the time, the 37-year-old Albanian was shot in the middle of the day in Saint Jansplein in Antwerp (Antuerp), by a person riding a "BMX" type bicycle.
Eyewitnesses to the incident reportedly were two 12-year-olds standing at the door of a building.
Court file
"The convicted Cassander Noga alias Kosuta Michal was arrested in Antwerp, Belgium on March 17, 2002, after an exchange of firearms with the police, where another Albanian citizen was killed and Cassander Noga himself was seriously injured."
But in 2005, a Belgian court, disobedient to the evidence, acquitted Cassander Noga.
Court file
"The convict was under investigation in the Belgian state for the murder of the Albanian citizen Astrit Shpërdheja, committed in the Belgian state on August 25, 2001.
On this basis, on March 25, 2002, he was arrested for falsifying the documents with which this citizen was staying in Belgium, while on March 28, 2002, he was arrested in connection with the investigation into the murder committed in the state. Belgian on 25 August 2001 of Astrit Shpërdhejas and the exchange of fire with the Belgian police on 17 March 2002.
From March 17, 2002, until March 25, 2002, the convict remained in the hospital due to his injury by the police forces.
On June 11, 2002, Kassander Noga pleaded guilty to forging documents and was sentenced to 6 months in prison, with half of his 3-month sentence suspended.
From March 17, 2005 until May 16, 2005, Kasandër Noga was detained due to the request for his extradition to Albania, which was realized on May 16, 2005 ”.
But when it seemed that resentment had subsided and the old enemies had fallen into silence, in fact their revenge slept like charcoal in the brazier and would wake up many years later even more violently.
After Cassander Noga was extradited to Albania in 2005, Erion Hasanbelli continued to make his living in Belgium.
But while Erion Hasanbelli was still free in Belgium and had not yet been brought to Albania in handcuffs, Cassander Noga, who had already been extradited, had begun his battle to escape the maximum sentence given in absentia for his murder. double he had committed in the Sanatorium to Erion Hasanbell's father and friend, a goal which he quickly achieved.
Shortly after his extradition to Albania in 2005, he initially managed to escape the life sentence that Albanian justice had given him in absentia for the murder committed in the Sanatorium of Aqif Hysenbelli and Dritan Hajdini, and to accept a shortened sentence sentencing him. with 25 years imprisonment.
But of course Cassander Noga had refused to be extradited to Albania to serve such a sentence.
Calmly, decision after decision, as release was expected to be a matter of time for him, Cassander Noga still seemed to have fresh wounds of revenge.
He seems to have been grinding the next revenge against Hasanbelli from the bars of the cell.
On the other hand, he planned in detail the release from the cell, which would not be long in coming, because although he had two severe sentences of 25 years each on his shoulder, he managed to see himself free.
But his revenge was delayed and seems to have been postponed since on October 21, 2013, Erion Hasanbelli was extradited from Belgium to Albania.
While his brother Geroni was put in handcuffs, only a few months ago, on June 14, 2013, near the Barricades Street in Tirana.
The extradition of Erion Hasanbelli came after the Court of Fier had sentenced him on September 7, 2009, to 25 years in prison on charges of "premeditated murder for blood feud committed in collaboration", "premeditated murder for blood feud, committed in cooperation remained in attempt ”. While his brother, Geron was acquitted, as it was not proven that the defendant had committed the crime.
The saga of their confrontation with justice would be long, which seems to have given enough time to Cassander Noga to plan the next blow. Thus, in 2012, the Vlora Court of Appeals upheld the first instance decision for Erion Hasanbelli.
While his brother, Geron was sentenced to 21 years in prison, but due to the shortened trial, he would eventually suffer 14 such.
Three years later, the Supreme Court decided to return the case for retrial to the Vlora Court of Appeals, because it found procedural violations.
After the retrial, the Appeal with decision no. 6 of 2017 acquitted Geron Hasanbelli, while for the defendant Erion Hasanbelli decided to dismiss the criminal case.
This decision finally released the brothers and paved the way for the return of Erion Hasanbelli to Belgium, where he was waiting for Cassander Noga, who had hatched the next criminal plan, who on June 11, 2022 is said to have shot him in the back, but without came out to kill him.
The bullets were fired exactly 4 months after the Supreme Court decided on March 17, 2022 to return for the second time for criminal retrial the brothers Erion and Geron Hasanbelli for the shocking crime they allegedly committed in Belgium 20 years ago.