Endrit Nika, a Swiss citizen of Kosovo-Albanian descent has been sentenced to 18 years in prison for the murder of his Argentine girlfriend, Maria Clara Urdangaray, after the court found that he threw her from the sixth floor of a hotel, in August 2023, causing fatal injuries.

Family members of both the victim and the defendant were present when the verdict was announced. The victim’s mother, Magdalena Urdangaray, displayed a banner in the courtroom, bearing her daughter’s photograph and a call for justice. 

“The truth will always prevail”, assassin,” Urdangaray called in Spanish and Albanian towards the defendant after the sentence.

The Kosovo Women’s Network expressed outrage, stating that the “punishment is not proportionate to the gravity of the crime.”

In a public response, the organisation described the killing as femicide, a gender-motivated murder. 

“A woman was killed in the context of an intimate relationship, as a result of control, inequality, and gender-based violence. The killing of women because of their gender is the most severe violation of the right to life and requires maximum punishment,” the statement read.

On May 28, 2025, Nika denied the charges brought by the prosecution, saying, “I am a hundred percent innocent.” The verdict can be appealed.

Maria Clara Urdangaray and her boyfriend, Endrit Nika, met in Spain in January 2023. They later moved to Switzerland to live together. The fatal incident occurred while the couple was in Kosovo to attend Nika’s brother’s wedding.

According to the indictment, on August 1, 2023, Nika caused Urdangaray’s death following a dispute in the parking lot of the Hotel “Sonoma” in Fushë Kosovë. The Prosecution stated that, after an argument, Nika “initially assaulted the victim and allegedly attempted to run her over with a car in the hotel parking lot.”

The indictment further states that once inside their hotel room, Nika “continued to physically assault Urdangaray, pushing her into a corner where she was unable to escape.” During the altercation, he reportedly removed the window frame and threw her from the sixth floor of the hotel.

The indictment noted that, as a result of the fall, Urdangaray “sustained severe bodily injuries and later died despite receiving medical treatment at the University Clinical Centre of Kosovo.”

Video footage of the altercation in the parking lot and the fall were also shared by different media outlets.

While a court sentenced a man for femicide, this week another acquitted a man accused of sexually abusing a minor. On Thursday, feminist group, the Collective for Feminist Thought and Action, staged a symbolic protest in front of the Court of Appeals in Prishtina, after KALLXO.com reported on Wednesday that the Court of Appeals acquitted a police officer accused of sexually abusing a minor from Drenas in 2019. The court ordered the state to compensate the police officer with over 45,000  euros in back pay, trust funds, and statutory interest, and reinstated him to his position.

The Collective placed a banner at the court that read: “The Court of Appeal Exonerates and Compensates Abusers of Girls and Women”.

“This decision, which quietly passed in 2024, is an alarm for our collective safety as girls and women,” the Collective said in a statement on social media. “It is deeply concerning to learn that someone accused of sexually abusing a minor will continue to work in the Kosovo Police, the very institution where violence is first reported,” they added.

The Collective called on the court to remove the officer from service, warning that his return “poses a double risk to every girl and woman in official uniform.”