YFor 24 years and eight months, his case file remained in the file of the Thessaloniki First Instance Prosecutor’s Office under the label “fugitive”.

The 48-year-old builder from Albania was accused of murdering a 19-year-old compatriot in early 1999y, in a rural area of ​​Sindos.

Immediately after the crime, the perpetrator fled to his homeland and it was not possible to arrest him by the Greek police authorities. Until last April he was arrested with an international warrant in Montenegro which extradited him to our country. Three months before the statute of limitations for the crime, due to the completion of 25 years, he stood before the Greek justice system for the first time, confessing his act. The Criminal Court of Thessaloniki unanimously found him guilty of premeditated homicide and sentenced him to 15 years in prison – a sentence which he seems to have already served in the prisons of his home country.

The case that looks like a scenario of a police-court drama begins onon January 31, 1999.

On that day, the then 24-year-old accused, working in a livestock unit in Sindo, murders his 19-year-old compatriot, a land worker in the area, stabbing him in the lung. The cause seems to have been an argument that preceded 24 hours earlier, for an insignificant – probably – reason. “He succeeded in stabbing him in the lung, as a result of which he was mortally wounded,” states the transmission of the Police to the Prosecutor’s Office of Thessaloniki, a document typed on a typewriter used by EL.AS. at that time and which is in the case file.

The same file includes statements of their compatriots who were examined as eyewitnesses and reported more or less the same thing: “We were sitting five or six people in a stable and talking. At some point the victim left to buy cigarettes and the accused followed him on his motorbike. Shouting and fighting were heard. We got out and got closer to see. At a distance of 50 meters we saw them fighting. Approaching a shorter distance, we saw the perpetrator holding a knife and leaving on the moped. The victim returned to the stable where he fell to the ground and cooled down a short time later. There had been a fight between them, because the perpetrator cursed the victim’s mother.” Disputing the facts, but not the altercation that preceded the murder, the defendant’s defense attorney will argue years later that all the testimonies converge in their content, since the examinees were related to the deceased and among them was his brother.

The escape, arrest and conviction by an Albanian court

After committing the murder, the 48-year-old defendant returns to Albania, where he continues his life having four children in the meantime. His life seems to be going smoothly, until now in 2013, the sister of the 19-year-old victim filed a lawsuit against him to the Albanian authorities for the murder he had committed in Greece. This is followed by his arrest and arraignment before an Albanian court. It should be noted here that the justice of the neighboring country has jurisdiction to judge the case, as it concerns its nationals, even if the crime was committed in another country. Under these circumstances, the 48-year-old was sentenced by the Criminal Court of Tirana to 15 years of temporary imprisonment, with the court setting an actual prison term of at least 10 years. Serving 3/5 of the prison sentence to which days of work (“day wages”) are beneficially credited, the perpetrator is released from prison in 2021.

Ignoring that the above decision does not produce res judicata for Greek justice – as Albania is not a member of the European Union – and therefore our country reserves the right to try him for the same crime, the 48-year-old was arrested last April in Montenegro in execution of the Greek – international – warrant. He is extradited to our country where he remains in custody until his trial. At stake for him is the amount of the sentence, because a possible life sentence would send him back to prison to serve the remaining time in custody, including the time he served in Albania for the sentence there.

Looking back to the distant 1999, the witnesses who came to the audience of the Mixed Jury Court of Thessaloniki, were called to testify what they know about the case. A process that proved to be difficult, as was evident from their statements. “Twenty-four years have passed, I don’t even remember why I came here,” said the 65-year-old owner of the stable where the murder took place. All he was able to recall were the words of an eyewitness who spoke of a “carter” confirming the “argument between aggressor and victim”. The testimony of a police officer – now retired – who participated in the investigations at the time moved along the same lines. “I am unable to remember anything after all these years,” he said and invited the court to read his statement. The same happened with the statements given by the eyewitnesses, which the defendant tried to refute.

“The victim was my brother friend, I apologize”

Taking the podium to apologize, the small, now gray-haired, 48-year-old gave his own perspective on the murderous episode, claiming that he was first attacked with a wooden bat-type pole. “I have done it and first of all I apologize to the victim’s family and your court. I came to work in Greece for a better life, I worked for three months in a sheep pen. B. (victim) was treated like my brother” she said with tears in her eyes and continued: “Last night his cousin treated us because he was engaged. While we were drinking someone told him that I cursed him. I didn’t know he had found out. On the day of the murder, the whole company went to the stable for coffee. When I went B. wasn’t talking to me, I asked him why but he didn’t answer. He said he was going to get cigarettes. I got into the car and started to leave. At 50 meters they hit me with a bat, it was night, I didn’t see who they were. I fell down and was unconscious for ten minutes. I thought they hit me to rob me. When I came to I was attacked again. I didn’t realize who I attacked. I used the knife in my work. I was determined to go to the Police but when I found out that I murdered him I got scared and didn’t go. He was a good kid, I didn’t want to kill him.”

Guilty without mitigating factors, sentence added to Albania

In court there was no legal representative from the side of the 19-year-old in support of the charge, nor any of his relatives, only the wife of the accused. His defense spoke of a crime committed in the heat of the moment and exceeding the limits of legal defense, claims that were not accepted by the court, as was the request to recognize mitigating factors for his principal. The court unanimously (by a vote of seven to zero) found him guilty the defendant for manslaughter with intent, in a calm state of mind and sentenced him to fifteen years of temporary imprisonment, despite the proposal of the district attorney to impose the maximum of the penalties, that is life imprisonment.

Upon hearing the sentence, the condemned man felt relieved. As explained by his lawyer, Thanasis Alexopoulos, speaking to APE-MBE, taking into account the sentence he served abroad, the decision of the Mixed Jury Court of Thessaloniki leads the 48-year-old out of prison. In this direction, article 10 of the Criminal Code, which concerns the calculation of sentences imposed abroad, was invoked. “The sentence imposed in whole or in part abroad, if it is followed by a conviction in the country for the same act, is deducted from the sentence imposed by the Greek courts”, the specific article states. In these circumstances, notes Mr. Alexopoulos, “my principal meets the conditions to submit a request for conditional dismissal”.

For now, however, the 48-year-old returned to the detention center, with the hope that he will soon find himself in a state of freedom, leaving behind his past for good.