BY DASHNOR KALOÇI
Memorie.al/The extremely grave event that occurred yesterday afternoon (October 6, 2025) at the Tirana Court of Appeals, where Judge Astrit Kalaja was killed by several pistol bullets and two other individuals-parties in that trial-were wounded, has shocked the entire public opinion. Furthermore, it received great resonance in foreign media, which focused on this unprecedented event within the premises of the Albanian judiciary. And rightly so, as such an event is not remembered to have ever happened before in Albania during these 35 years of transition (i.e., after the 90s). As for the period of the communist regime of Enver Hoxha and his successor, Ramiz Alia, or even the period of the Monarchy of King Zog, or since the creation of the Albanian state in November 1912, it’s absolutely out of the question!
Albanian Precedent Abroad: 1928, Prague
However, this unprecedented nature is only valid for Albanian territory. Outside Albania, there is a case where Albanians used the “thin-muzzle” [gun] in a courtroom, even killing the defendant and wounding other people there. This happened a full 97 years ago, on November 30, 1928, when 17-year-old Zija Vuçiterna from Kosovo, in the courtroom in Prague, Czechoslovakia, where the session against philosophy student Alqiviadh Bebi was taking place, fired several pistol bullets. He left Bebi dead and wounded a jury member and an Italian journalist who was following the trial. After the killing, Vuçiterna was immediately arrested by the local police and declared to the relevant authorities that he had committed the murder with premeditation, as an act of revenge. His fellow countryman, the victim Alqiviadh Bebi (originally from Elbasan), had killed the Albanian Minister Plenipotentiary in Prague, Ceno Beg Kryeziu (King Zog’s brother-in-law), a few days earlier (on October 16, 1928), also in an assassination, in one of the hotels in the Czechoslovak capital, where Vuçiterna served as his bodyguard. These two events (the murders of Ceno Beg Kryeziu and Alqiviadh Bebi) caused a great stir not only in Albania at the time, but also received great attention in the international press, where several prestigious European dailies dedicated entire pages to them. The event received more coverage in the newspapers of Yugoslavia at the time, such as: “České Slovo,” “Narodni Listy,” and “Politika” of Belgrade.
History Repeats Itself
This known, nearly 100-year-old event would remain unique in its kind (when Albanians fired bullets in a courtroom), until yesterday (October 6, 2025). History repeated itself when the extremely grave event occurred in which 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 within the premises of the Albanian judiciary, since the creation of the state in November 1912. But such events, i.e., murders with firearms, although they have never occurred in courtrooms, have happened in other justice bodies and premises, such as the Investigation (Interrogation) Office and the Prosecutor’s Office. Although few, they did occur during the period of the communist regime. Such as the event of March 24, 1977, when a detainee, during his interrogation by his investigator in the premises of the Korçë Internal Affairs Branch, snatched the pistol from the investigator’s drawer. After wounding him on the head with the pistol butt (to avoid making noise), he went out into the corridor, fired several bullets and left dead another investigator who was coming toward him, and then escaped into the streets of Korçë. Regarding this event and what happened next to the arrested man who managed to leave the premises of the Internal Affairs Branch of the city of Korçë, we are informed by the archival documents extracted from the Archive of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which are made public for the first time and with the respective 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
SOCIALIST PEOPLE’S 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 was 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 pistol grip. At this time, another investigator, Nasi Karai, enters, whom the detainee shoots with a pistol in the stomach, seriously wounding him. After that, with a pistol in his hand, he left the office, crossed the wall of the Branch’s yard and left in an unknown direction. Measures have been taken to capture him. Both injured were hospitalized and at 1:10 a.m. on March 25, 1977, Nasi died. Shyqyriu is out of danger.
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PILO SHANTO
‘SECRET’ ARCHIVE DOCUMENT WITH THE OPERATIONAL COMMUNICATION OF THE MINISTRY OF INTERIOR, ON THE EVENT 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
SOCIALIST PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF ALBANIA SECRET
MINISTRY OF INTERNAL AFFAIRS Example 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 wounded 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, which was squeezing socks.
Operative Workers 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 gun 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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