Astrit Kalaja, an appeals courtroom decide, died on his approach to hospital after the courtroom assault on Monday.
Printed On 6 Oct 2025
A person on trial within the Albanian capital, Tirana, has allegedly shot and killed the presiding decide.
Appeals courtroom decide Astrit Kalaja died on Monday as he was being transported to the hospital, Albanian police stated.
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The 30-year-old suspect fled the scene however was later detained, and the revolver he’s believed to have used was additionally discovered, police added.
The gunman additionally shot a father and son who had been occasion to the trial. They had been each rushed to the hospital, the place their accidents had been deemed to not be life-threatening.
The Albanian press reported that the courtroom case involved a property dispute.
Albania’s Prime Minister Edi Rama described Kalaja’s dying as a “tragic occasion”, saying that it ought to immediate a “reflection” on the courts’ inside safety system.
In an announcement posted on X, Rama referred to as for more durable sentences for gun-related crimes. The decide’s killer ought to face “probably the most excessive authorized response”, he wrote.
In the meantime, President Bajram Begaj condemned the killing as “a horrible assault in opposition to the complete justice system”.
Between January and June this 12 months, there have been 213 gun-related incidents in Albania, in response to knowledge from the South Japanese and Japanese Europe Clearinghouse for the Management of Small Arms and Gentle Weapons.
Underneath Albanian legislation, unlawful gun possession is punishable by as much as three years in jail.
Since sweeping judicial reforms backed by the European Union and the US had been launched in Albania in 2016, the nation has seen a big courtroom backlog build-up, with tens of hundreds of circumstances delayed for years.
