“Çole Massacre”: The chain of assassinations from 2015 in Vlora, which continues to cause casualties After the recent assassinations, Vlora is shocked again by another murder with a firearm. Five minutes before midnight on Wednesday, Shkëlzen Velaj, 42, was executed inside his palace in the “24 May” neighborhood.
He was shot on the fifth floor of the building where he lived with a Kalashnikov and as a result he lost his life in the hospital. How the incident happened According to preliminary information, the victim was returning home when he noticed that near the palace he was being chased by a suspicious car.
Velaj left his car on and ran to enter the apartment on the 5th floor of the palace, but when he was opening the door, the assassin fired a barrage of bullets in his direction.
The perpetrators left in the direction of the Vlora river road, near the village of Risili near the “bay pass”, where they abandoned the BMW car without license plates and burned it, while they left in the direction of the defendant.
The victim’s brother was killed in the Çole massacre
Shkëlzen Velaj is the brother of Ardi Velaj, left killed in what was called the Çole massacre, an event that took place on April 7, 2015 in Vlora. Besides him, Akil Hasanaj and Albi Limaj were also killed in the serious incident. It all started on the evening of April 6, 2015, the number one casino in the center of the coastal city.
Initially, Akil Hasanaj (Haki Rakipaj) and Ardi Velaj were involved in the quarrel, who insulted and raped Giuliano Lutaj. The latter asked for help and informed his friend, Albi Limaj.
Limaj informed Aleksandër Llanaj and the young people left him to clarify the next day in a bar in the “Çole” neighborhood. By the time they met, they had pulled out their weapons, firing at each other. As a result of the bullets, three people were killed, Ardi Velaj, Akil Hasanaj (Haki Rakipaj) and Albi Limaj.
Aleksandër Llanaj, Bertil Aliaj and Ani Begaj were handcuffed. Llanaj is behind bars with the other two. He was sentenced to life imprisonment, while Aliaj and Begaj received 35 years in prison each.
Thus, as the track of the investigation of last night’s murder, may be the event that happened 6 years ago, where the chain of revenge has caused several victims to date.
7 young people involved in the “Çole massacre”
Haki Rakipaj (Akil Hasanaj), 29 years old, resident of Vlora, killed.
Ardi Velaj, 27 years old, resident in Vlora, killed.
Albi Arjan Limaj, 21 years old, from Vlora, lost his life on the way to the hospital.
Aleksandër Llanaj, 23 years old, resident of Vlora, injured.
Bertil Alliaj, 23 years old, resident of Vlora, arrested.
Giuliano Lutaj, 21 years old resident of Vlora, released.
Ani Begaj, 19 years old, resident in Vlora, arrested.
Çole massacre, the chain of murders from 2015 until today
As expected, those killings sparked a series of retaliatory assassinations. A teenage quarrel after a birthday party ended with what is considered the “Çole massacre”, with three dead and three sentenced to long prison terms, one to life imprisonment and two to 35 years each. Ferdinand Llanaj was charged and sentenced to life imprisonment, as well as Bertil Aliaj and Ani Begaj to 35 years in prison each for this event.
The trial against them was accompanied by numerous controversies. After the Court of First Instance and the Court of Appeal of Vlora had given the maximum sentences for the three accused, the prosecutor of the General Prosecution, during the trial in the High Court, asked to withdraw from the charges.
The relatives of the victims reacted harshly to the mitigation of the charges in the High Court, which forced the then Attorney General to replace the prosecutor in the case. Following his replacement, the prosecution was represented by the Director of Investigation, Adnan Jolie, who sought to uphold lower-level decisions.
Subsequently, the Supreme Court upheld the severe sentences for Llanaj, Aliaj and Begaj. This episode is accompanied by other bloody events. In May 2017, the businessman and owner of “TV Vlora”, Erven Hyseni, was killed in the center of Vlora. The director of OSSHE for the Vlora region, Roland Saliu, was accidentally killed in that assassination.
The assassination is suspected to have taken place because Hyseni, a relative of one of the victims in the “Çole massacre”, Haki Rakipaj, used his television to hit Llanaj. This version was not tested, although doubts are strong about this line.
About 4 months later, in October 2017, three members of the Llanaj family were injured in the area of the Trans-Balkan road, near the center of Vlora. The target was Ferdinand Llanaj, the brother of the lifer, Aleksandër Llanaj. Along with Ferdinand, his 8-year-old son was injured in this assassination, as well as his family friend, Dritan Begaj.
One of the suspects for this event is Armando Sulejmani (Çipuri). Against him, the Court of Vlora had issued a security measure “arrest in prison”, as a suspect for the criminal offense of “murder in qualifying circumstances”, remaining in cooperation and illegal possession of weapons. In the summer of 2018, a young man from Vlora, Albano Xhaferraj was abducted in the city of Vlora and there is no trace of him.
A person, who is considered a “penitent” of justice, has claimed that Albano Xhaferraj was abducted and killed by several people, collaborators of another well-known name in the criminal world in Vlora, Edison Harizaj.
According to this “witness” Albano Xhaferraj, he was abducted and then killed, because he was a witness and knew the assassins of Ferdinand Llanaj. Even this version has not yet been formalized by investigative institutions.
A few months after this episode, in November 2018, Edison Harizaj and his friend, Gent Caci, were killed on the outskirts of Durrës. They were on board an Audi A8 when two cars ambushed them and shot them to death. The Durrës event continues to be without an author, despite the fact that the police raised the first and strongest suspicions about the revenge of the Llanajs.
On January 14, 2019, Mikel Mehmetaj was injured. He was known for his connection to the Llanaj tribe. Again the police found only one burnt vehicle. Sources from the police suspect that the assassination is related to the series of murders started in 2015. At noon on Sunday, February 17, 2019, Armando Sulejmani (Çipuri), the main suspect for the wounding, was wounded in the assassinations by as yet unidentified persons. of Ferdinand Llanaj and his minor son.
Çipur’s two friends, Arjan Hasani and Orest Hoxha, were left dead, while Sulejmani, who was declared wanted by the police, was found by his opponents.
The reason for the banal quarrel between young people in April 2015, is now forgotten, but the consequences of the series of revenge killings, which left behind that conflict in a betting hall, is continuing to produce victims in the city of Vlora./GazetaSi
