
The murder of Tirana Appeals Court judge, Astrit Kalaja, on October 6, 2025 in the courtroom was planned 4 days in advance by the perpetrator, Shkodra resident Elvis Shkambi.
The premeditated murder scenario was discovered after examining the phones seized from Elvis Shkambi and his uncle Gjon Shkambi, where 3 experts from the cyber laboratory at SPAK discovered several compromising messages that Elvis sent to Gjon Shkambi's phone.
As it turns out in the criminal file on October 2, 2025, obtained by journalist Elton Qyno, Elvis Shkambi sends a message to his uncle, Gjon Shkambi, writing in the evening hours that: "...and I'll fuck them all up...".
Meanwhile, on October 3, 2025 at 10:56 PM, Elvis Shkambi wrote a message to his uncle, saying: "...the situation is serious enough, let's make it a little more serious...".
Two minutes after this message, on the evening of October 3, 2025, Elvis Shkambi sends another message to his uncle, Gjon Shkambi, saying the following: "...let's keep our nerves for Hana..."
And precisely on October 6, the day when the serious crime occurred in the premises of the Court of Appeals, it was a Monday. On this very day, Judge Astrit Kalaja was killed with 3 bullets from a “Welt Waffen W. Germany, Cal.765 mm, Browning” pistol.
All 3 bullets were penetrating, leading to the immediate death of Judge Astrit Kalaja. These messages discovered on the phone have led the prosecutors of the case, Arenc Çela and Ridvan Suka, to the conclusion that the murder of the judge was premeditated 4 days earlier by Elvis Shkambi.
Therefore, based on this situation, official charges have been filed against Elvis Shkambi for "Murder of public officials" to the detriment of the victim judge Astrit Kalaja, "Murder in other qualifying circumstances" against the litigants committed in collaboration to the detriment of Ragip Kurtaj and Ervis Kurtaj, as well as "Unauthorized possession of weapons and explosive ammunition."
With these 3 serious charges, if found guilty, Elvis Shkambi risks a sentence of 35 to life imprisonment. Meanwhile, during the 1-year investigation conducted, prosecutors did not establish the participation in the murder of Judge Astrit Kalaja, of Elvis Shkambi's uncle, Xhon Shkambi.
At the beginning of the investigation, Gjon Shkambi was arrested and investigated for the murder of the judge, but this charge was soon not proven. However, the investigation against him proved that he was involved in criminal acts of "Murder under qualifying circumstances against litigants committed in collaboration to the detriment of the victims Ragip Kurtaj and Ervis Kurtaj."
An employee of the Tirana Court of Appeal, Banush Koxhaj, has also been named as a defendant in this case, and is accused of "Abuse of duty" for failing to physically search after the red signal issued by the court's scanner.
The case has now entered the preliminary hearing phase at the Tirana court and the trial process is expected to begin in the coming months. ( Syri )