Monthly report

Present situation
At the end of the month, a bomb, hidden in a package inside a private garden, exploded in the hands of a boy, killing him. Allegedly, the murder is related to an event happened in March 2016, when the victim’s brother shot two cousins, injuring one and killing the other.
Around the same time, a murder and an attack were committed. A man was killed in his car by a neighbor, apparently for a dispute that had occurred in the bar of a village. In the car there was also the 10-year-old son of the victim, who remained unhurt. In Korça (southern Albania) unknown people shot at a man’s car, fortunately without causing victims; his son thinks it might be a revenge for a robbery he had committed in 2008.
In the middle of the month, a man got conditional release, after he had been extradited from Italy in 2014, where he had been previously sentenced to life imprisonment. The judge stated that the alternative measure to detention was granted due to his good conduct and the relationship he had created with the victim’s family. It is interesting to note how, although not explicitly mentioned, a form of restorative justice has been applied to this case. (more…)

Present situation

On January 17th, in Korça (southern Albania), a man was killed because of a quarrel triggered by trivial reasons. After the dispute, the killer went home to take the rifle and then he shoot the victim.
On January 24th, a thirty-one-year-old man killed his sister’s lover. The newspapers reported that the murder was perpetrated in order to protect his family’s honour.
The most tragic event happened in Tiranë at the end of the month. Here a man was killed because of an alleged blood feud. The victim was charged with murder few years ago, but then he was acquitted for lack of evidence. In 1997 and in 2010, two of his three brothers were killed and, since then, he had been living self-isolated and rarely leaving his house. Now the fourth brother, the only one still alive, is living in the same condition of self-isolation. (more…)

Present situation
On December 4th, a case of hakmarrje ended up with the wounding of a person. The victim kidnapped the cousin of his assailant a month earlier.
At the end of the month, a 17-year-old girl was killed and her boyfriend was seriously wounded in Tirana. It seems that the violence happened due to the jealousy of another suitor of the young girl, who had received a slap from her boyfriend, then severely injured.
In addition, this month a 39-year-old man was killed in Topojan – Dibër region – by his ex-father-in-law, with whom he had been in conflict since he was left by his wife. After a fight, the victim wounded a friend of his ex-father-in-law with a knife and threatened to kill the latter and his family. The ex-father-in-law’s reaction (“for self-defense”, as he claimed) was to hit the ex-son-in-law on the head with a piece of wood, killing him. In order to avoid the victim’s family revenge the police is now patrolling the murder’s house. (more…)

Present situation

At the beginning of the month, in Kumanovë (Macedonia), a fight between members of two families led to the death of one person and to the wounding of four people.
On November 9th, the mayor of the small town of Kotë, in southern Albania, was killed because of a quarrel with a militant from the opposite party. After the argument, the killer retrieved a gun from his car and then returned to shoot the victim.
Furthermore, some fights took place in various parts of the country causing the injuring of some Albanian citizens. (more…)