A judge in Albania has been shot dead after a man opened fire during a trial at the Court of Appeal in the capital, Tirana.
Judge Astrit Kalaja died en route to hospital, officials said, while two others involved in the hearing over a property dispute – a father and son – were shot but sustained injuries that were not life-threatening.
Police said they had arrested a 30-year-old male suspect who they identified by the initials “E Sh”, but Albanian media have named as Elvis Shkëmbi.
His uncle, a defendant in the case, has also been arrested, as has a security guard whom, the authorities claim, let the alleged gunman into the building, even after he set off a metal detector.
Albanian state police say Mr Shkëmbi shot Judge Kalaja “several times” using a pistol which he removed from his belt immediately after a verdict was announced.
He then allegedly turned the gun on the two plaintiffs, wounding them both.
According to the authorities, the 63-year-old security officer, who they refer to as “BK”, failed to physically check the two men or to register them in a “protocol book” where all people entering or leaving the Court of Appeal must be recorded.
The suspect and his uncle were then able to hang around the lobby for nearly an hour prior to the hearing.
After the shooting, Mr Shkëmbi allegedly left the room and handed a pistol to a court clerk.
His uncle “did not take any action to stop his nephew’s criminal actions”, police said, adding that this “creates reasonable suspicion that he was aware of the plan to execute the judge in the case, in the role of instigator and/or assistant”.
Albania’s Prime Minister Edi Rama, meanwhile, offered his condolences to Judge Kalaja’s family, saying: “The criminal aggression against the judge undoubtedly requires the most extreme legal response toward the aggressor.”
He also called for stricter security within the country’s courts and harsher punishments for the illegal possession of weapons.
The country’s general prosecutor Olsian Çela said: “Beyond the heartbreaking loss of one life and the injury of two others, this event strikes at the very foundation of justice and the functioning of the legal system.”
Judge Kalaja was a lawyer for more than 30 years. He initially worked in a district court before being appointed to Tirana’s Court of Appeal in 2019.
Firearm attacks on judges in the courtroom are rare but they do happen. A decade ago, a judge in Milan’s Palace of Justice was shot and killed by a man on trial in a bankruptcy case. He also killed a lawyer and his co-defendant before escaping, but was later arrested.
Albania had the highest number of firearm incidents linked to public disputes in the first six months of this year among Balkan nations, according to a UN-backed regional monitor.
Between January and June, there were 43 instances in which a firearm was involved in a public dispute in Albania – out of a total of 213 firearm-related incidents.
That is less than the number recorded in the same period last year.
