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By:
Ardit Kika
- June 22, 2026 19:21
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The Court of Appeal has heard the appeals of the parties in the case where Endrit Nika is accused of murdering his partner, Maria Clara Urdangaray. The prosecution has requested a harsher sentence, as has the victim's family, while the defendant's defense has requested his release, claiming that the fault lies in the poor structure of the hotel where the couple stayed on the critical day. In the first instance, Nika was sentenced to 18 years in prison
The family of the victim Maria Clara Urdangaray and the State Prosecution have requested a harsher sentence for Endrit Nika, convicted in the first instance for the aggravated murder of the Argentinean, while the defendant's defense has requested his release, at Monday's session at the Court of Appeal in Pristina.
The Appeals Court reviewed the appeals against the decision of the Basic Court in Pristina, by which Nika was sentenced to 18 years in prison for the murder of an Argentine citizen in Fushë-Kosovo in 2023.
The referring judge, Mentor Hajraj, announced that all parties have filed an appeal regarding the conviction.
"The Basic Prosecution Office in Pristina - Department for Serious Crimes - filed an appeal against this verdict within the legal deadline, only with a proposal that the Court of Appeal approve the appeal as well-founded and change the verdict only with regard to the decision on punishment and that the punishment be harsher in proportion to the extreme seriousness of the criminal offense, the high degree of guilt and the consequences caused," said Hajraj.
Betim Shala, lawyer for the victim's family, listed several reasons in his complaint, among which he mentioned irreparable damage, non-implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, as well as the Istanbul Convention.
Shala argued that the Appeal Court should give an exemplary sentence for this case, which, according to him, is a classic case of femicide.
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Murder of Argentine woman, Prosecution seeks harsher sentence for Nika, defense seeks acquittal
"Bad behavior after the commission of the crime and attempted corruption: During the course of the proceedings, the defendant's family members attempted to influence the prosecution and court bodies through bribery. This attempt demonstrates a complete lack of social remorse, open disregard for the justice system and a tendency to evade responsibility. This circumstance should completely nullify any effect of the mitigating circumstance of the defendant's criminal innocence. "The existence of femicide and the high social risk: The committed act constitutes a classic case of femicide - the murder of a woman because of her gender, preceded by physical violence," the complaint of the victim's family states.
Tomë Gashi, the lawyer for the family of the accused Endrit Nika, has requested the defendant's release, arguing that Maria Clara Urdangaray's death occurred accidentally after she leaned on the weak window frames of a building that was built without a permit.
"The cause of death is not my client, but the hotel owner, because the hotel was built in violation of the rules, and the window and the entire frame fell out. So, the responsibility should be placed solely on the hotel owner," said Gashi.
He said that he had engaged an expert, whose expertise, according to him, proved the opposite of the expertise administered at trial.
"A young girl has died and a young man has been unjustly convicted," Gashi said.
Gashi said that he has filed criminal charges against the hotel owner and manager at the Basic Prosecution Office in Pristina.
Maria Clara Urdangaray died after falling from the sixth floor of a hotel in Fushë-Kosovo, where she was staying with her partner Endrit Nika on the tragic day.
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Endrit Nika sentenced to 18 years in prison for murdering his Argentine girlfriend
Her mother, who came from Argentina for the trial, thanked Kosovo institutions, saying that Clara received justice.
The case provoked major reactions in public opinion.
