BY HALIL RAMA
Commissioner Artan Cuku will be honored at the 111th anniversary of the State Police on January 13, while on January 14, 2024 he will celebrate his 49th birthday, surrounded not only by his family, but also by many friends and colleagues. .
Not only from Lura, where he was born, grew up, spent his childhood and received his basic education, but also from Tirana, Shkodra, Tropoja, Vlora, Fieri, Berat and almost from all over Albania. This is due to the fact that he remains in the memory of every police officer and every person who knew him and worked with him as a symbol of high human values, intelligence, loyalty, high morals, as a talented leader of the Police, an intellectual with values , courageous decision maker and high performance.
The First Director of the State Police, Artan Cuku, would have been 49 years old on January 14, if the criminal hand had not taken his life at his prime, 7 years ago. On 8.4.2017, around 8:10 p.m., he was killed entering his house in “Rugë e Kosovare”, Tirana, a fact for which the Prosecutor’s Office for Serious Crimes carried out investigations in the framework of Criminal Procedure no. 139/ 2017 and at the end of the investigation, the prosecution body has concluded that his murder was committed in cooperation, due to his duty, during the time when he was exercising the functions of the Vlorë District Police Directorate, a crime provided by articles 79/b and 25 of the Criminal Code (“Murder of State Police employees”).
Three months ago (September 30, 2023), the investigative journalist Fatjona Mejdini (Director for the Balkans of the “Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime”) published on Facebook the nonsensical reasons, according to her, for the delay of justice in the case of the murder of former commissioner Artan Cuck. Mejdini says that justice is not making any effort for the “Martyr of the Motherland” and that the testimonies given in the trial have highlighted the author.
On the other hand, the journalist tells the detail that Bledar Jambelli, the suspected author of the murder, was helped by a senior Albanian official not to be investigated, given that he is an active member of the Greek minority.
REACTION OF INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST FATJONA MEJDINI: “COMMISSIONER ARTAN CUKU WAS JUMPED INTO THE STREET AND WAS LEFT ALONE”
“Today (September 30, 2023) I had a coffee with Rakip, the brother of Artan Cuk, the Chief Commissioner of Police killed in the line of duty in April 2017. I handed Rakip several copies of a publication of the organization where I work, where the deceased, already declared ‘Martyr of the Motherland’, is listed among the main victims of organized crime from all over the world.
Six and a half years after the murder, Rakipi and the Cuku family are still waiting for justice, which the Albanian state owes its former high official. Their pain increases every day, when they see that the courts and even more politicians, have hidden their heads and have not found the courage to be transparent and learn the need to give justice.
- Artan Cuku was thrown into the street by the State Police and left alone, at the peak of his professional career (42 years old), after he had contributed to bringing many dangerous criminals to justice.
- The trial of the perpetrators of the murder has not yet ended in the Court of Tirana, and although scientific evidence and testimonies have identified the perpetrator, Bledar Jambelli. He escaped and has not yet been sentenced in absentia.
- The Greek state has refused Jambelli’s extradition on the grounds that he is a Vorio-Epiriot and an active member of the Greek minority in Albania and that the trial against him would be political and retaliatory to his political activity. No senior Albanian official (Minister of Justice or Prime Minister) has mentioned it publicly or taken a stand on this fact.
- Recent evidence made public by fellow journalists indicates that leaders of the Greek minority in Albania had a role in not extraditing this criminal to Albania. None of the politicians who politically support these leaders of the Greek minority have asked for a public explanation of these accusations.