TIRANA, Nov. 21 – The Tirana Serious Crimes Court of Appeals left nine out of 11 sentences issued for the so-called ‘Lazarat Group’ in power on Tuesday, the members of which were found guilty of killing Special Forces Officer Ibrahim Basha on June 2015, during a crackdown of Albania’s “cannabis village.”
The decision was followed by a violent reaction of the convicts’ family members, who harshly verbally offended the panel of judges and aimed at them with strong items inside the courtroom. The same climate ensued in the premises outside the courtroom against the journalists who were there to report on the court session.
Based on the decision, the only ones who benefitted a shorter sentence were Alban Aliko, who was given 18 years as opposed to the 20 issued before by the First Instance Court and Elson Kazma, who was sentenced to 17.6 years instead of 18.
The Court of Appeals upheld the sentences issued for the other convicts: life sentence for Albion Aliko and Bajram Boci, 35 years of prison for Elvis Boci and sentences ranging from nine to 20 years of imprisonment for the rest.
All persons were investigated while under imprisonment and found responsible for the June 24 event from three years ago, when a police vehicle was shot at while entering the Lazarat village and as a result the officer of the Special “Renea” Forces Basha was killed, while two others were injured.
The defendant’s’ lawyers objected to the court’s ruling, stating that their conviction was unfair since the court, as they expressed, failed to prove which of the convicted persons shot Basha to death.
In 2015, the government intervened to stop the massive cultivation of marijuana in the area, which had gone on unchecked for years, but no incident matched the one which left Basha dead in terms of severity.
Over 2015, police had a strong presence in the village and the raid destroyed 102 tons of marijuana and 530,000 marijuana plants with an estimated market value at the time of some 6 billion euros, which is more than half of the country’s annual gross domestic product.
