TIRANA, Dec 9 /ATA/ – Former President Bamir Topi on Tuesday was questioned by prosecutors at the Special Anticorruption Prosecution Structure (SPAK) over the 21 January 2011 protest, when four people were shot dead outside the Prime Minister’s Office.
Speaking to reporters after leaving SPAK headquarters, former President Topi kept his comments short, saying “the investigation into the Jan. 21, 2011 killings remains ongoing in order to establish the truth.”
He said he cannot share details because the investigation is secret.
Topi was questioned as a person with knowledge of the events of Jan. 21, when four protesters were shot dead during an anti-government demonstration in 2011, a period when he was serving as Albania’s president.
“The role of the Special Prosecution is clear – to investigate and find the truth. Everything is still in the investigation phase. I have spoken extensively,” Topi told reporters after leaving SPAK.
Former Prime Minister Sali Berisha has also testified in the same case, after being summoned twice as a person with knowledge of the events.
The investigation into the 2011 killings was relaunched following a request by the family of Aleks Nika, one of the victims, who have sought justice for more than a decade. His case remains the only unresolved killing from the incident. Tirana prosecutors suspended the investigation in 2020, before reopening it in 2021. The family repeatedly asked for SPAK to take over the case, but the agency initially declined while it was still being probed by the Tirana Prosecutor’s Office.
On Nov. 14, 2023, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the Jan. 21 case constituted a state crime and must be investigated as such by Albanian authorities. It also ordered that the investigation into Nika’s death be allowed to proceed, prompting the family to appeal to Albania’s Supreme Court.
One year later, the Supreme Court ordered SPAK to register the family’s complaint and open a full investigation into the Jan. 21 events.
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