Man on trial in Albania kills judge in Tirana courtroom shooting

Three people in the Albanian capital Tirana have been arrested after a man on trial shot dead a judge in a courtroom on Monday, according to police.

Judge Astrit Kalaja was presiding over a hearing about a property dispute in the Tirana Court of Appeal when the man shot him with a pistol, the authorities said.

Kalaja died while being rushed to hospital.

The gunman also shot two other people involved in the hearing, a father and son, police said. They were taken to a hospital and their injuries were not life-threatening.

The suspect — a 30-year-old identified by authorities only with the initials E Sh — was arrested shortly after the shooting, according to reports. He was named as Elvis Shkambi by Euronews Albania.

He had opened fire because he knew he would lose the case, local media reported.

The man's uncle was also arrested as was a security guard at the court, police said. Euronews Albania identified them as Gjon Shkambi and Banush Koxhaj, respectively.

The security guard did not physically search the defendant or his uncle even though they had set off the metal detector while entering the court, the authorities said.

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama said on Monday that it was a "tragic event" and called for tougher sentencing for gun-related crimes.

"The criminal aggression against the judge undoubtedly demands the most extreme legal response against the aggressor," he wrote in a post on X.

Albania's President Bajram Begaj condemned the attack in a statement as "a terrible attack against the entire justice system".

The colleagues of slain Judge Kalaja placed flowers at the scene of the crime on Tuesday in a symbolic gesture to mark his memory, Euronews Albania reported.