Ademaj family lawyer: Liridona Ademaj’s murder was planned a year earlier; life imprisonment sought for the accused

Leutrim Syla, the Ademaj family’s lawyer, said he stands by the appeal filed with the Court of Appeals in the case of Liridona Ademaj’s murder. He also said he expects the Appeals Court’s ruling to provide more detailed reasoning for holding the hearing behind closed doors.

Syla said he could not comment at length on the decision to close the hearing, since the reasoning for that decision was also given in a closed session. He said full explanations are expected to be made public in the Court of Appeals’ ruling.

Regarding the appeal, he said the family of the deceased continues to maintain that the murder would not have happened without Kushtrim Kokalla’s involvement.

The lawyer alleged that Kokalla had been involved in the matter from its early stages and had not met with the others only two weeks before the incident, as had previously been stated during hearings.

According to Syla, the injured party presented the court with evidence showing that an attempt had been made to carry out Liridona Ademaj’s murder a year before she was killed. He said other methods of committing the crime had also been tried during that period, but without success.

The Ademaj family has asked that the accused be classified as members of organized crime and that the offense be reclassified. Syla said the family is seeking life imprisonment for all three, a position he said it will maintain to the end, since no other sentence would fully reflect the crime committed against Liridona Ademaj.

The lawyer also objected to the decision to hold the hearing without the public present. He said the trial should have been open so the public could see how people who commit murder are sentenced.