Two prisoners executed while on leave
16/01/2014

Two people have been executed today in Rrogozhine. The victims are both notorious criminals who were serving prison, and they were returning from a prison leave to visit their families. Two other people have been wounded during the attack, a passerby citizen and the brother in law of one of the victims, who happened to be on the same car.

Police suspects that the real target was one of the victims, Astrit Gjepali, who has been sentenced for killing five people, one of them a police officer, Nazmi Kopshti. Gjepali was sentenced to 25 years in Prison by the Durres Court for the crimes of 1997, and was returning to prison after a leave.

The killers ambushed them in Rrogozhina, and fired dozens of bullets to their cars. The wounded are both hospitalized, the one who was in the car being in very serious conditions.

The other victim is Halil Fici, known has part of the Ben Cami gang, accused of drug traffic in Italy. Police has established several roadblocks in the national road, but there is still no information about the killers. The motive is thought to be retaliation.

The relatives of the victims had considered as unfair the verdict of the Durres Court in 2003, which left Gjepali in prison for 25 years, while the Prosecution had requested life in prison. Three years later, the Court of Appeal left the Durres Court verdict in effect.

Several hours after the murder, the Lushnje Police found a burning vehicle at the Lushnje water pumps in Konjat. Experts found two automatic weapons and several bullets.

The car has been abandoned 10 kilometers from the crime scene. The Kavaja and Rrogozhina police rushed to help the Lushnje police, while the Interior Ministry sent a helicopter to inspect the terrain from above. The police has summoned several possible eye witnesses for interrogation, since the area where the vehicle was burned is populated.

Gjepali’s gang crimes in 1997

Gjepali was sentenced to 25 years in prison for five murders

On June 15th and 16th 1997, Gjepali and other members of his gang have committed several murders in Durres, by spreading panic and terror in the population.

Gjepali is also accused for the murder of Ylli Majaci on March 23rd, 1993, in Zurich, Switzerland. By mid June 1997, Gjepali and his friends started their series of murders with Luan Plaku, in Durres, and only a few hours later they killed Bilbil Neza in Tirana.

A few moments before this murder, they shot a SUV by seriously wounding two people inside.

But their history doesn’t end here. On June 15th they executed Kajmak Kullolli and Gezim Beqeiri at “4 Rruget e Shijakut”

One day later they killed Nazmi Kopshti, who was a Durres police officer, serving at a state owned gas station in Shkozet.

The murders committed by Gjepali’s gang took place within a short period of time, spreading panic and terror in Durres.