On Thursday, Lulzim Berisha returned to the same building, once the seat of the Serious Crimes Court, where a life sentence was handed down to him more than a decade ago. The Special Court confirmed the security measure of imprisonment for the former leader of the Durrës Gang.
In a trial, where he is a co-defendant with six others, including Plaurent Derivshaj and Emiliano Shullazi, Berisha is being tried as an accomplice in the execution of Klodian Saliu, on February 26, 2005 on the Durrës-Tirana highway. In the same investigation, he was also suspected of the murder of businessman Vajdin Lame, a case that was later dismissed at the request of SPAK. During the hearing, Berisha exonerated himself from Saliu's murder. He described the statements of the repentant justice official, Luftar Reçi, as untrue.
"I don't know that man at all, I've never met him. If you try to contact me, punish me as much as you want. Just as I was accused of murdering Vajdin Lamaj, this will be the same," Berisha said.
The arguments in favor of the client were expressed to the media at the SPAK exit by lawyer Detar Hysi.
Lulzim Berisha also has an old score with the justice system. He has almost 6 years of unserved prison time from the sentence he received as the leader of the Durrës gang, responsible for several serious criminal events. He was sentenced to life in prison in the First Instance and the Appeal of Serious Crimes, but the Supreme Court in July 2014 reduced the sentence to 25 years.
Two years later, after serving almost 19 years of his sentence, the Durrës Court of Appeal accepted his request for early release and placement on probation.
One of the documents on which he based his claim for release was a letter signed by the former mayor of Durrës at the time, Vangjush Dako, who said that he would appoint Berisha to one of the directorates of the Municipality. In December 2021, while Berisha was declared wanted by the justice system, the Supreme Court overturned the Appeals decision, thus forcing Berisha to return to prison to serve the remaining years of his prison sentence.
The former leader of the Durrës Gang was extradited on Tuesday evening from Spain, where he was arrested in December 2023. For a 1 year and 3 months stay in the Spanish state, where he was found with a transformed appearance and with a fake Bulgarian identity card, the former leader of the Durrës gang fought a legal battle to avoid extradition to Albania. (A2 Televizion)
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