On the 22nd anniversary of Steve's absence... The pain that words cannot describe
By Entela Kaloti
"Steve hasn't left, he's here. He hasn't been gone a day!"
With these words that come from the depths of a broken heart, Aurela, the mother of Stiven Toshkes, commemorates her son's 22nd birthday. Despite the celebration, the cake and the joy, this is a silent birthday. A touching, silent anniversary, where pain takes the place of joy and absence screams louder than any words.
"Happy birthday, my life! You are my light in the darkness. You were born to live in eternity, my son!" she wishes her son, who she thinks of as close to her, her trembling voice touching everyone's hearts, as white balloons rise towards the sky.
Instead of gifts, there is this memorial by decision of the Tirana City Council, in the high school where he studied. A cold granite slab with the inscription that touches every passerby: "In memory of Stiven Toshkes, former student of Partizani high school - only love you gave, fly to higher dimensions!"
A plaque that carries the weight of a life cut short, of a extinguished hope, of an energetic and dreamy soul.
Steve was a student at the "German College of Technology". He loved painting, sports, traveling. He was the boy with the smile that lit up every environment, with a big soul and heart. Handsome and with an aura that stunned! In the eyes of his friends, he was a model. In the family, he was adoration and pride. In the neighborhood, he was the smile that everyone loved.
His dream was to become a businessman. He wanted to open his own restaurant, a passion that began at the age of 17, when he worked and managed a bar for a few months. He was also attracted to the world of technology and car design. He wanted to go far and until then it seemed that he had paved the way to success, but he did not think that this path would be cut short before it had even begun.
His life was treacherously cut short, on this street between April 17 and 18, 2023, by a knife in the hand of a peer, near his home, on a holy night for Muslim believers, the Night of Power.
The knife that took his life also pierced our hearts...
Mother's pain
For his mother Aurela, my friend of 20 years, the pain is deep, but the longing for her son is even greater. Few can understand her... This has made her look beyond life, find solace in faith and other dimensions of life. Time stopped for her on April 18, 2023. Nothing material in this world matters to her anymore. Every day is the same....
Steve's departure from this world has made her a different person. She will not share her pain with anyone. She does not ask why? She does not ask for explanations, she does not curse or curse, but only asks for justice, and more than earthly justice, she asks for divine justice. She refuses any media invitations and public debate on the murder of her son, because her pain has no consolation.
Meetings with Lela, as we call her, are a privilege, because she finds peace in her solitude, in her son's room, where she has been staying for more than two years and where she says she feels him close.
In conversations with her, she seems small when she talks about the greatness of spirituality and the closeness she has with God, about the focus, or goals, and meaning that life on earth has now taken on.
We met when our sons were just 2 years old in the News 24 newsroom and since then we have not only shared the corridors and work, but also our lives. Our conversations and coffees were connected to the lives of our children; about their joys, worries, desires, futures and education.
What did Steve teach us?
Steve's passing not only shocked his family, his community, and all of us, but it also changed our lives. It made us realize how important and precious life is. And what really matters and has meaning. And it's not achievements, successes, fame, career, wealth, or power, but it's love... it's those simple things, the joy found in them. It's family, the time we spend with the people we love, it's true friends, companionship, and health. To live life simply, without selfishness and without greed. Steve made us realize that we are transient in this world; that we cannot change our fate, but we only have one thing in our hands: to choose to become better people, or the opposite.
Steve's story, like that of many other young people who have lost their lives in a similar and unjust way in our country, is a wake-up call, a strong call and reflection for all of us. A call for awareness and education. To stop violence, to protect life, to create a society where a young person's life does not end at midnight, but flourishes in the light.
How did the event happen 2 years ago?
A fight over a girl that started on social media initially degenerated into a minor injury on Elbasan Street and then into a fatal knife attack near his home.
Steve returned from work (after school) around midnight, as he did every day, when the author Aksel Hoxhaj and his friend Ensi Maze were waiting for him at the door of the house.
Stiv's family and friends say that he had a conflict with Arbër Murataj, the son of the notorious Admir Murataj, who was killed in the Rinas robbery in April 2019, when he shot at the police. Two months before the incident, Arbër Murataj called Stiv to clarify things. To calm the bloodshed, the two met on Elbasan Street, near the Ballet School, where they had also left the meeting to clarify things. But, when Stiv went to the meeting, he was stabbed by 18-year-old Arbër Murataj.
Stivi managed to defend himself and was slightly wounded in the stomach and left the scene, but did not file a police report, after being threatened with death by Murataj. Two months later, on April 18, he was shot to death, also with a knife, by Aksel Hoxhaj, who turns out to be a close friend of Arbër Murataj since first grade. Meanwhile, Ensi Maze, who was also at the scene, held Stivi's friend inside the vehicle, so that he would not help him. The latter was caught on the day of the crime by the police, while the perpetrator surrendered after 2 days.
The conviction of the perpetrators and the suspicions of the family members
After almost two years of court hearings, on March 30 of this year, the Tirana Court sentenced young Axel Hoxhaj to 18 years in prison. He was found guilty of the murder of Stivën Toshkësi on April 18, at around 00:15, on “Skënder Sallaku” street, in the capital, near the “Partizani” high school.
Ensi Maze, a young man who was present with the perpetrator at the time of the crime, was also found guilty of failing to report the crime. He was sentenced to 3 years in prison and is now free.
The two young men were in constant conflict with each other over a girl, a conflict that ended in fatality. According to the black squads, this conflict, although for weak motives, had engaged the perpetrator's group in finding information and the victim's location. According to the family, there are also phone messages in which Arbër Murataj wanted to give a reward for finding information about Stiv.
However, the meeting at midnight on April 18, 2 years ago, at the entrance to Steve's house, was considered by the court to be accidental and the murder, according to it, occurred after a momentary conflict and without premeditation.
But Steve's family thinks otherwise, claiming that the prosecutor in the case also neglected and manipulated the evidence.
And while the ordeal of justice will continue in the Appeal, Lela tells us that she speaks to her son every day, that she feels him close at every moment. For her, Steve is only physically absent, showing us that there is only a thin thread that separates this world of ours from the afterlife... (A2 Televizion)
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MUND TE LEXONI GJITHASHTU
