Tirana Times
TIRANA, Sep. 10 – A judge was killed when his car exploded in the southwestern port city of Vlora. Police have offered a reward of 100,000 Euros for information about the blast. Meanwhile prosecutors have started the investigation. The government condemned the deadly incident as an attack on the judiciary, while the National Union of Judges in a statement said its members would “not be intimidated … and remain committed to their role as judges.”
Skerdilajd Konomi, 33, was driving his wife’s Mercedes when the remote-controlled C4 exploded. He called for help but neither the people nor some policemen who happened to be nearby were able to assist him. The firefighting truck came and then his body, still alive, was taken out of the car. However, Konomi died before reaching the hospital.
Prosecutors are also investigating the role of the police who were available during the initial moments after the blast. Possible motives behind Konomi’s killing will be investigated in the context of his role as a judge, as well as property issues in which Konomi was involved.
His family had won a recent trial which awarded them some hectares of land in a prime beach location not far from Tirana. His family remains in two other trials for property claims.Local media and many analysts have compared the murder to those carried out by the mafia in nearby Italy during the 1980s and 1990s. Konomi was married and had two young children.
