FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
Valbona Kalaja, the wife of the Appellate Court judge killed in the courtroom, Astrit Kalaja, has publicly recounted for the first time how she learned the devastating news of her husband's execution in the line of duty.
Valbona said that she knew Astrit from a very young age, when they both studied at the vocational high school in Shkodra.
"I've known him since I was 14 years old, he was 16, when I started vocational high school in Shkodra. I went to that school against my will, because I wanted to continue medicine, but my father took me to the electrical branch, it was his wish. Astrit was in the mechanical branch and I met Astrit at youth meetings. He was a guy with authority back then, serious, it's not like he's changed much. These years, since he turned 60, anyone would recognize him from those who knew him back then," she confessed on "Zë me Miran Podcast".
Recalling the day of the assassination attempt, she says that she had been for a medical check-up and that she had felt for days that something might happen, but that she had this feeling for herself, while she had not thought about her husband. She also tearfully recalls the moment of separation from her husband in the morning.
"I was on leave that day, I had a check-up that I had to do and I had visits to the doctors all day. For a week I had an inner conviction that I would have a problem with my breast, it had been fixed on me. And that day, in the morning, I showed it to him, I said: 'I'm afraid I have something.'
He dressed for work and told me that 'you'll be fine'. But I had a conviction that I would have something, but it wasn't for me, apparently, that day. 'Come on', he told me, 'to drink coffee', then he told me not to drink it, because he was going to do the tests.
When I left, I don't know why that day, when he came back to me, I also fixed his eyebrows, it was my habit to take him to work as nicely as possible. He didn't have a problem with the dress code, I was more concerned with him going in a suit. He was a different nature, but his job position required him to go in a white shirt and collar.
When we broke up, she had a big bag that she was carrying with files, it was Monday, court day. I told her not to go by bike, and surprisingly she listened to me. That day she took the car, left and I went to the clinic near the house. I did the checkups and she told me to go at 3 o'clock, but I told her I couldn't come because I hadn't had lunch. I went to work, because I had done well. I was very happy until my phone rang ," she said.
Valbona Kalaja said she received the news of the incident from colleagues who had seen the news of his murder in the media. She confessed that even when she went to the hospital, no one had dared to tell her that her husband had passed away.
"I was waiting for her to come home to tell her that everything was fine. I get a short message on my phone from a colleague: 'Valbona told me, how are you?'."
At that moment, another work colleague, who had heard the news, called me. I never leave the TV on during the news, everyone had heard about it, but I didn't. He asked me: 'How have you been, is there anything new?' We spoke briefly and he hung up on me, he didn't tell me.
He didn't manage to tell me. Then a mutual friend of ours called us, it was like she was screaming, she asked me: 'How is Astrit?'. And she hung up on me, she didn't say anything. I called Astrit, he didn't answer. I remembered the first message, I called that colleague and he told me that something had happened at the Court of Appeal. A colleague of Astrit's called me and told me that he had been injured and was in the hospital.
"I took a taxi. The event was so big that even the taxi driver had heard about it. He said to his nephew: 'They killed a judge.' In the hospital, I found all his colleagues crying. They were crying profusely. No one came, no one dared to tell me anything," she confessed through tears.
Asked about any concerns or fears that Judge Astrit Kalaja might have regarding job security, his wife confessed that he had been worried for the past week.
"That week he was very busy, worried. I saw him waking up at night, I found him with his cell phone in his hand, he couldn't sleep. I saw him on the last night, when he closed the last file, which I will never forget. It was a thick file. When he closed the file, dust rose, but one doesn't think badly of it. When I remember them now, I remember them in detail. That day, all day, he was busy with the files for Monday's trials.
He didn't show anything, at least not with me. But he had discussed this trial with a couple of his friends. He had told them that he had a file with 31 families and he didn't know how it would be done. My colleagues told me that he had had problems with these before. He was brave, he had tried hot cases, in '97 he tried serious crimes. He never had any problems. Even in 1997 he went out on the streets without fear, because he said: 'I haven't done anything to anyone,'" Valbona Kalaja confessed.
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