Murder of police officer in Korça/ Prosecution files four charges against perpetrator

2026-06-07 17:00:00, Aktualitet CNA

Murder of police officer in Korça/ Prosecution files four charges against

The Korça Court has today upheld the security measure of "prison arrest" for Violand Braçellari, the perpetrator of the murder of officer Enea Mekolli and the injury of officer Edison Adri.

Meanwhile, the Korça Prosecutor's Office has announced that four charges have been filed against Braçellari.

He is accused of committing the criminal offenses of "Murder of state police officers", "Murder of state police officers", attempted, "Unlicensed possession and production of weapons, explosive weapons and ammunition", in the form of possession of firearms in public places and "Unlicensed production and possession of hunting and sporting weapons".

Full announcement:

At the request of the Prosecutor's Office at the Court of First Instance of General Jurisdiction, Korça, the security measure 'Arrest in prison' was left in force for citizen VB, arrested in flagrante delicto as a suspect for committing the criminal offenses "Murder of state police officers", "Murder of state police officers", remaining in the attempt, "Illegal possession and production of weapons, explosive weapons and ammunition", in the form of possession of firearms in public places and "Illegal production and possession of hunting and sporting weapons", in the form of possession of hunting weapons and ammunition, provided for by articles 79/b, 79/be 22, 278/1 and 280 of the Criminal Code.

The investigations into criminal proceedings no. 673 began after the incident that occurred on 03.06.2026 in Bode Mountain during the operation to capture the wanted person VB, sentenced to 10 years in prison for the criminal offense of "Production and sale of narcotics" provided for by Article 283/2 of the Criminal Code.

The operational plan was also based on the report made by citizen AK, 32 years old, who had been working as a shepherd for several days on citizen VB's cattle on the Bode mountain and who, according to the report made by him, had been raped and threatened with an automatic weapon by VB.

For this reason, on 04.06.2026, in the morning at around 07.00, the forces of the Korça Police Department, organized according to the drawn-up operation plan, approached Mount Bode near the place where this citizen has his stables. During the siege of the buildings in the area, the police forces were confronted with gunfire from citizen VB, from which police officer EM lost his life and another police officer, citizen EA, was injured. Citizen VB tried to run away in the lower direction of the stables, but as a result of the exchange of fire he was wounded and was caught a few meters below the stables.

This citizen shot at the police, even though the officers were wearing police uniforms and bulletproof vests. Investigations determined that the police officer who lost his life had an injury to his chest, as well as to the shoulder strap.

While they were giving him first aid, the gunfire continued even though citizen VB heard the police officers calling for him to surrender and that they were police forces. But he continued to shoot at the police and as a result, during the exchange of fire, police officer EA was also found, who was wounded in the head.

In relation to the person under investigation, citizen VB, the Prosecutor's Office at the Court of First Instance of General Jurisdiction, Korça, assesses that given the circumstances of the fact, the extremely high social danger of the criminal offenses, for which there are suspicions based on evidence that they were committed by the person under investigation, as well as due to the extremely high social danger of this citizen, who turns out to have been previously convicted of several other socially dangerous offenses, as well as based on the fact that this citizen has been evading justice for nearly 10 years, hiding from the implementation of the security measures previously given to him, as well as from serving criminal sentences, citizen VB should remain in the security measure 'Arrest in prison'.

There are also well-founded suspicions that in this specific case, elements of the criminal offense of 'Abuse of Office' provided for by Article 248 of the Criminal Code may have been consumed for the manner of organizing and conducting the operation and the measures taken in advance for the management chain. /CNA