
The Special Court has returned to SPAK the criminal file against a Russian citizen, accused of sending a threatening message about a bomb at Rinas airport.
According to the Special Court, the Tirana Prosecutor's Office had gone beyond its competence by investigating the case of the Russian Vladislav Urban and that the investigation against him on the charge of "intimidation for committing criminal offenses with terrorist intent" should have been registered in SPAK.
The threatening message of 44-year-old Urban was sent from Greece to two email addresses of the Operational Manager's office in Rinas in February 2023.
The court decision clarifies the content of the message, where the Russian not only threatens to detonate a bomb if the Albanian government does not recognize Kosovo as Serbian, but it was alleged that two Albanians were taken hostage.
"Hello. My name is Vladislav Urban. If you are reading this message, then there is a bomb in your house. You should ask your government to recognize Kosovo as Serbian so that the bombs do not explode. And for the sake of it, I said, I have captured two Albanian citizens and I am keeping them in my house in Greece in Nei Epivates, A... If you don't respect, they'll be in big trouble. You have 48 hours to save many lives of Albanians, ZVKosovo je Srbia", his message said.
The investigation launched by the Tirana Prosecutor's Office after referring the case to the anti-terror and the inspection of the sender's mail revealed that the author of the text was Vladislav Urban, born in Moscow, Russia and resident in Thessaloniki, Greece. Through cooperation with the Greek side, it has been learned that the 44-year-old lives alone at the address stated in the email, that he suffers from mental health problems and that he is being treated with medication by a psychiatrist. From the verifications made in his apartment, it turned out that he had not taken any person hostage. But Urban Russia had previous precedents in email terrorist threats.
In January 2023, he sent mails to Athens Airport and a hospital in Greece with the content "I am Taliban and in the name of Allah I will kill Greeks". From the verifications in TIMS, it has resulted that Vladislav Urban has no entry and exit into the Albanian territory, while a security measure of "arrest in prison" has been assigned to him, in his absence.
In the preliminary review in the Special Court, Judge Rudina Palloi, reasoned that the criminal offense for which the Russian was investigated is the exclusive competence of SPAK. In this way, the court found absolute invalidity of the request for trial of the Tirana Prosecutor's Office and passed the file to SPAK for the continuation of the investigation. /A2CNN