An Albanian murderer is repeatedly sharing videos to social media from within his Manchester prison cell despite guards removing devices from him numerous times.
Eugert Merizaj has been illegally posting to Instagram and TikTok since he was sentenced to 32 years in prison in May 2022.
The 33-year-old mobster was jailed for his leading role in a brutal shotgun killing of a drug dealer, Hemawand Ali Hussein, in Hartlepool in 2019.
Merizaj has boasted that he is spending ‘half of the time’ inside on his mobile phone despite having had at least three confiscated in four months, according to The Times.
Though it is rarely prosecuted, possession or use of a mobile phone in prison without permission is an offence.
Eugert Merizaj, 33, is repeatedly sharing videos to social media from within his Manchester prison cell despite guards removing devices from him numerous times
He appears to be living the life of Riley at the British taxpayer’s expense at HMP Manchester, showing off a TV, speaker and games console as well as an array of books in his native language earlier this month
The Albanian mobster (seen) was jailed for his leading role in a brutal shotgun killing of a rival drug dealer, Hemawand Ali Hussein, in Hartlepool in 2019
Merizaj is now posting to a nascent TikTok account with 18,000 followers after his previous one, with over three times that, was suspended.
He appears to be living the life of Riley at the British taxpayer’s expense, posting a clip on Monday singing along to music while wearing designer clothes.
A video showing off the contents of his cell at HMP Manchester earlier this month appears to reveal that Merizaj has a TV, speaker and games console as well as an array of books in his native language.
Most recently, he shared a clip of himself on a TikTok live stream, overlaid with a caption thanking one of his followers for ‘standing by me more than some that I know’.
The convicted murderer streamed a TikTok ‘Live Match’ last week to play a game on the platform as he chatted to a woman elsewhere.
Live Matches involve TikTok users filming themselves talking to other users for five minutes, in which they often implore online spectators for donations.
The winner of a match is the one receiving most ‘gifts’ from viewers, in the form of colourful virtual stickers.
He recently posed on Instagram wearing £550 Dolce & Gabbana trainers outside his cell vaping with the caption ‘stronger than ever’ written in Albanian. It was accompanied by a song by his compatriot, Stresi, titled Never Give Up.
This comes a year on from the first reports that Merizaj was posting to social media from the comfort of his jail cell, sharing clips of himself playing games and flirting with women.
He was able to receive virtual ‘gifts’ from social media admirers which could then be exchanged for cash.
Merizaj, whose victim was blasted in the head, bragged then that if his phone was discovered by prison officers he would just ‘buy another one’. He claimed he was already on his third phone in prison, each costing him £2,000.
He has been illegally posting to Instagram and TikTok since he was sentenced to 32 years in prison in May 2022
Hemawand Ali Hussein (pictured) was shot in the head in a house in Hartlepool by a gang Merizaj was part of in 2019
In June, he spoke to the self-branded ‘King of Instagram’ and fellow Albanian Kozak Braci in one video last week filmed inside HMP Manchester.
In the clip, Braci tells Merizaj: ‘You will have €2,000 from me, €2,000 from Fabio [an Albanian murderer in jail in Greece]… as a support for you to get out of prison.’
He also boasts about spending £50,000 on lawyers and says: ‘No one will let me out. My money has gone.’
Merizaj was part of a gang who lured cannabis dealer Hemawand Ali Hussein to a house in Hartlepool in 2019 before blasting him with a shotgun.
He was tracked down in Belgium after the killing and extradited to the UK. Three other members of the Albanian gang were jailed for manslaughter.
Jailing him for life in 2022, Mr Justice Lavender accepted Merizaj did not pull the trigger and was not in the house when the killing took place, but said he had been heavily involved in its planning and had bought weapons including an axe.
In one TikTok chat, Merizaj said he hoped to be moved to Albania, understood to be a reference to a prisoner transfer scheme aimed at easing the burden of foreign prisoners on the UK taxpayer.
If he serves his full 32 years, it is estimated that Merizaj will cost Brits £1.4million.
The Prison Service said last year: ‘Phones are not tolerated in prisons and those who break the rules face tough punishment – including extra time behind bars.’