A pensioner who allegedly rented her flat out to a Swedish underworld murder gang over Christmas 2019 wrote a message to her tenant on Airbnb afterwards in which she said: “I hope you didn’t do it.”
Flamur Beqiri, 36, was shot eight times in the back as he returned to his home in Battersea, south London, with his girlfriend and young son on Christmas Eve 2019.
Four men deny murdering Beqiri, who was known to friends as Alex, and two others plead not guilty to perverting the course of justice.
Alex Beqiri
© Photo : Facebook
The prosecution arguess Beqiri’s murder was linked to a Swedish underworld feud which had claimed several other lives.
It is claimed the gunman, Anis Hemissi, cycled back to the apartment, which had been rented for £2,000 on Airbnb, and four hours later caught a cab to the airport and flew to Copenhagen in the early hours of Christmas Day.
Hemissi, Estevan Pino-Munizaga, 35, Tobias Andersson, 32, and Bawer Karaer, 23, all deny murder.
On Wednesday, 8 December, the trial at Southwark Crown Court heard a statement from Jeannette Dickinson, who lived in an apartment in Oysters Wharf, Battersea, and rented it out so she could go on holiday to the Spanish island of Gran Canaria.
Miss Dickinson, a pensioner who passed away earlier this year, gave a statement to police in January 2020 after being contacted by detectives who had traced the killer’s movements back to Oysters Wharf.
The jury also heard Airbnb messages she had exchanged with Pino-Munizaga, who had rented another apartment from her in November 2019 and then took Flat 119 from 16 December 2019 to 6 January 2020.
Before he arrived, Miss Dickinson messaged Pino-Munizaga: “Enjoy your trip to London. Have a merry Christmas. If you want a great Christmas lunch there is the famous Gordon Ramsay restaurant in Battersea Square. But you’ll have to book.”
She also sent him a link to a website page about: “Things to do in London over Christmas.”
But murder squad detectives contacted Miss Dickinson in Gran Canaria and told her they believed her apartment had been used by the murder gang.
On 28 December, Miss Dickinson messaged Pino-Munizaga: “I have to tell you that the police are looking for you in connection with a shooting in Battersea on Christmas Eve. Someone saw you going into Flat 119. Of course I hope you didn’t do it. Get in touch if I can help, Jeannette.”
British chef Gordon Ramsay poses at the Trianon palace restaurant on March 20, 2008 in Versailles, west of Paris.
© AFP 2023 / Stephane de Sakutin
The jury has been told Pino-Munizaga had actually flown back to Scandinavia on 18 December but the prosecution claim he handed the keys to the apartment over to Andersson and then Karaer and eventually onto Hemissi.
Hemissi’s barrister, Abbas Lakha QC, told the jury if Miss Dickinson was still alive he would have liked to have asked her about a number of matters, including her knowledge of a woman called “Nadia or Nadin” who might have stayed at Flat 119.
He said he also would have asked her about Miss Dickinson’s friend Armand Qosja - known to her as “Alex The Greek” - who rented the other half of Flat 119, and whether someone stayed with him in the flat.
Mr Lakha said: “We would also have asked her about DNA, how cigarette butts with her DNA on it was found in the flat when she said she cleaned it before she left on holiday on 16 December.”
The prosecution claim the Swedish killers hired Clifford Rollox, 31, and his friend Claude Castor, 21, to "to tidy up once they had gone" but the police found the apartment before they had time to remove all the forensic evidence linking Mr Beqiri and others to the apartment.
Last monthб prosecutor Mark Heywood QC told the jury Hemissi had worn various disguises, including two different latex masks as he reconnoitred the house where his victim lived.
A man wearing a latex mask and posing as a litter picker, who the prosecution claim was Anis Hemissi
© Photo : Metropolitan Police
The prosecution claim Hemissi disguised himself as a council workman complete with litter-picker in order to stalk his prey.
The jury has been told the killing was linked to an “escalating series of violence” since 2018, which included the murder of the girlfriend of Mr Beqiri’s friend, Naief Adawi, in the Swedish city of Malmo in August 2019.
Mr Heywood has told the jury two individuals who had been investigated in connection with that murder, Tarek Bekar and Gabriel Hassoun, were “are also responsible for part of the money chain that led to the booking in London of accommodation in July, done by Pino-Munizaga.”
Hassoun’s then girlfriend was Nadin Abdul Rahman.
The trial continues.