FLASH
Shkruar nga Dashnor Kaloçi
The extremely serious event that occurred at noon yesterday (October 6, 2025) at the Court of Appeal in Tirana, where several pistol bullets killed Judge Astrit Kalaja and injured two other people - parties to that trial - has shocked the entire public opinion. There was even a great echo in the foreign media, which paid attention to this unprecedented event in the Albanian judiciary. And rightly so, since such an event is not remembered to have ever happened before in Albania in these 35 years of transition (that is, after the '90s). For the period of the communist regime of Enver Hoxha and his successor, Ramiz Alia, or even for the period of the Monarchy of King Zog, or since the creation of the Albanian state in November 1912, there is no mention! Absolutely.
Albanian precedent abroad: 1928, Prague
However, this unprecedented event is valid only for Albanian territory. Outside Albania, there is a case where Albanians have played the “gryk-holla” in a courtroom, even killing the defendant and injuring other people there. This happened 97 years ago, on November 30, 1928, when 17-year-old Zija Vuçiterna from Kosovo, in the courtroom in Prague, Czechoslovakia, where the trial against philosophy student Alqiviadh Bebi was taking place, fired several pistol bullets. He left Bebi dead and injured a jury member and an Italian journalist who was following the trial. After the murder, Vuçiterna was immediately arrested by the local police and declared to the relevant authorities that he had committed the murder premeditatedly, in revenge. His fellow countryman, the victim Alqiviadh Bebi (originally from Elbasan), had a few days earlier (on October 16, 1928) assassinated the Albanian Minister Plenipotentiary in Prague, Ceno Beg Kryeziu (King Zog's brother-in-law), in one of the hotels in the Czechoslovak capital, where Vučiterna served as his bodyguard. These two events (the murder of Ceno Beg Kryeziu and that of Alqiviadh Bebi) caused a great stir not only in Albania at that time, but also received great attention in the international press, where several prestigious European dailies devoted entire pages to them. The event received more coverage in the Yugoslav newspapers of the time, such as: “České Slovo,” “Narodni Listy,” and “Politika” of Belgrade.
History repeats itself.
This well-known event, almost 100 years old, would remain unique in its kind (when Albanians poured bullets into a courtroom), until yesterday (October 6, 2025). History repeated itself, when the extremely serious event occurred where the Appeals Judge, Astrit Kalaja, was killed by one of the parties in that judicial process. As we emphasized in the introduction, this event is unprecedented and has never happened before in the premises of the Albanian judiciary, since the creation of the state in November 1912. But such events, that is, murders with firearms, although they have never happened in courtrooms, have happened in other organs and premises of justice, such as the Investigation and Prosecution Offices. Although few, they have happened during the period of the communist regime. Such is the event of March 24, 1977, when a detainee, during interrogation by his investigator in the premises of the Korça Internal Affairs Branch, grabbed the investigator's pistol from the drawer. After wounding him in the head with the pistol grip (so as not to make noise), he went out into the corridor, shot several bullets and left another investigator who was coming towards him dead, and then escaped through the streets of Korça. Regarding this event and what happened next with the detainee who managed to leave the premises of the Internal Affairs Branch of the city of Korça, we are informed by archival documents extracted from the Archives of the Ministry of Interior, which are made public for the first time and with the relevant facsimiles by Memorie.al
'SECRET' ARCHIVE DOCUMENT WITH THE OPERATIONAL COMMUNICATION OF THE MINISTRY OF INTERNAL WORKS, ON THE EVENT THAT OCCURRED IN THE INTERNAL WORKS BRANCH OF KORÇA DISTRICT
PEOPLE'S SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF ALBANIA SECRET
MINISTRY OF INTERNAL AFFAIRS Copy No. 1
GENERAL BRANCH Tirana, 25.3.1977
OPERATIONAL COMMUNICATION NO. 70
On 24.3.1977, the investigator of the Korça Internal Affairs branch, Shyqyri Duro, interrogated the detainee, Thoma Aleksandër Nikolla, aged 25, born and residing in Korça, working at the SMT, who had been arrested on 7.2.1977, for theft of socialist property. At the time the investigator left the office to call a friend of his, the detainee grabbed the investigator's pistol from the desk drawer.
The investigator saw this action and fought with him, but the detainee hit him on the head with the handle of his pistol. At this time, another investigator, Nasi Karai, enters, whom the detainee shoots in the stomach with a pistol, seriously wounding him. After that, with a pistol in his hand, he left the office, crossed the wall of the Branch yard and fled in an unknown direction. Measures have been taken to capture him. Both injured were hospitalized and at 1:10 on 25.3.1977, Nasi died. Shyqyriu is out of danger for his life.
HEAD
PILO SHANTO
'SECRET' ARCHIVE DOCUMENT WITH THE OPERATIONAL COMMUNICATION OF THE MINISTRY OF INTERIOR, ON THE INCIDENT THAT OCCURRED IN THE INTERIOR BRANCH OF KORÇA DISTRICT, ON THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE FINDING AND MURDER OF THE CITIZEN WHO KILLED INVESTIGATOR NASI KARAI
PEOPLE'S SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF ALBANIA SECRET
MINISTRY OF INTERNAL AFFAIRS Copy No. 1
GENERAL BRANCH Tirana, 29.3.1977
OPERATIONAL COMMUNICATION NO. 73
POLICE DIRECTORATE
Regarding the announcement made in the operational communiqué No. 70. dated 25.3.1977, on the escape from the Korça Internal Affairs Branch of the detainee Thoma Nikolës, who killed the investigator Nasi Karai and injured Shyqëri Duro, on 25.3.1977, at 11.00, at the DPB in Korça, two pioneers, V….. Z…..Ç…. and A…. K….F…., and after them pioneer E…. Xh….L…., appeared and reported that they had seen an unknown person near the stadium, with a pistol in his hand, who was squeezing socks.
Operative Worker Agim Seriani and AGBV Dh…..G…..S….. went to the scene. The latter called on him to stop. Since he did not obey, but shot him twice with a pistol in his direction, the officer fired a volley, wounding him. The criminal fell to the ground and crouched down, without releasing the weapon from his hand, which fired involuntarily, hitting him in the chin. He died. The General Branch was notified of the above on 28.3.1977. / Memorie.al
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