Two years after the killing of Egli Proga, the Korça Prosecutor’s Office closes the investigation and sends 5 defendants to trial

Two years have passed since the killing of 42-year-old Egli Proga, and the Prosecutor’s Office at the Korça Court has concluded the investigative phase, sending the criminal file against five people linked to the case to court.

After completing the investigation, the prosecution charged Denis Meçe and Leonidha Guçe with “intentional murder, committed in collaboration.” In the same case file, Arjan Manellari, Voltan Shkulaku and Andi Shkulaku are accused of failing to report the crime, as well as carrying out acts that obstruct the discovery of the truth, criminal offenses committed in collaboration.

As for the two main suspects, the Korça Court has imposed the security measure of “house arrest,” while the other three remain under the measure of “obligation to appear.”

According to the forensic medical report, Egli Proga died as a result of a cerebral hemorrhage caused by a punch to the head. To support the charges, the prosecution relied not only on the forensic report, but also on the testimony of people questioned during the investigation, security camera footage from businesses near the scene, as well as other evidence collected during the investigative process.

The incident was recorded on the evening of August 10, 2024, in the city of Pogradec and sparked a strong public reaction. At first, the case was investigated under a different criminal classification, but later, after new evidence and the forensic report were obtained, the charge was reclassified as “intentional murder.”

Throughout these two years, Egli Proga’s family members have held protests and continuously demanded that the incident be fully clarified, insisting that responsibility should not remain only with the suspected perpetrators, but that the way institutions, especially local police structures, reacted in the first hours after the crime should also be investigated.

With the preliminary investigation now closed and the case file submitted to the court, the judicial process is expected to begin in the coming weeks, when the evidence gathered by the prosecution and the parties’ claims will be examined.