Status boundary: Ndrea Prendi and Agim Llupo were convicted of negligent manslaughter for two deaths. No final judgment establishes who killed Aleks Nika or Hekuran Deda, or proves allegations against former senior officials questioned in the renewed investigation.
A protest outside the Prime Minister’s Office
The opposition Socialist Party organized a demonstration in central Tirana after months of political conflict and corruption allegations. Authorities had advance notice and deployed police and the Republic Guard around the Prime Minister’s Office on Dëshmorët e Kombit Boulevard.
The gathering became violent when some protesters threw objects, pushed through a gate and entered part of the compound. Police used tear gas and a water cannon, and officers drove the group back. The violence inside the crowd did not erase the State’s obligation to plan and control any use of firearms.
The European Court later found serious deficiencies in coordination, crowd-control resources, instructions on lethal force and the chain of command.
Four people killed by gunfire
Republic Guard officers fired blank and live ammunition. Ziver Veizi, Hekuran Deda and Faik Myrtaj died at or near the scene. Aleks Nika was struck in the head and died in hospital on 4 February 2011.
The four victims were on the pavement outside the compound and, according to the European Court’s record, were not involved in the violence. The confrontation also injured 45 other citizens, 82 Republic Guard officers and 27 police officers.
This archive names the victims without graphic detail. Their deaths are not treated as an undifferentiated political symbol: the criminal responsibility for each shooting must follow evidence and final judgments.
Lost time and missing evidence
Prosecutors opened an investigation the same day and issued arrest warrants for six Republic Guard officers. The warrants were not promptly executed; officers turned themselves in eighteen days later. The European Court considered that delay a lost opportunity to reduce the risk of collusion or distortion.
Video recordings stored at the Prime Minister’s Office were erased. Proceedings against an information-technology officer did not establish who deleted them or how. Investigators also failed to produce a complete sequence of commands and shootings or fully pursue evidence such as bullet marks at human height.
The bullet recovered from Aleks Nika was too damaged to match to a specific weapon. His death was separated from the main prosecution and remained without an identified shooter.
Two convictions, two deaths without an identified perpetrator
A first-instance court acquitted the two principal defendants in 2013. Later that year, the Tirana Court of Appeal convicted former Republic Guard commander Ndrea Prendi of negligent manslaughter in the death of Faik Myrtaj and officer Agim Llupo of negligent manslaughter in the death of Ziver Veizi.
Prendi received one year of imprisonment and Llupo three years. The appeal court concluded that firing live ammunition in the air had been excessive and that the consequences should have been foreseen, but it did not find intentional direct shooting proved.
Those convictions are real and final. They do not resolve the deaths of Aleks Nika and Hekuran Deda, nor do they establish every disputed decision in the command structure.
Nika v. Albania
On 14 November 2023, the European Court of Human Rights delivered its judgment in the application brought by Aleks Nika’s widow and daughters. It found that the investigation had failed to establish the truth or identify and punish those responsible, violating the procedural part of Article 2.
The Court also found a substantive Article 2 violation. Albania had not shown that the lethal force resulting in Nika’s death was absolutely necessary. The victim posed no serious threat, and protecting a building could not by itself justify lethal force.
The judgment did not identify Nika’s shooter or convict a specific officer. It required Albania to keep trying to clarify the circumstances and identify and punish those responsible.
The renewed SPAK proceedings
In March 2024, Albania’s Supreme Court ordered the Special Prosecution against Corruption and Organized Crime to register and investigate the Nika family’s complaint. SPAK formally registered proceedings on 15 July 2024.
The registered offences included aggravated murder, abuse of office and acts obstructing the discovery of the truth. SPAK stated that possible conduct by former high state officials placed the matter within its jurisdiction. Registration describes the legal scope of an investigation; it is not a finding that a particular person is guilty.
By 2025 and 2026, SPAK had questioned former officials and continued forensic work involving an audio recording said to contain Republic Guard communications. No final indictment or judgment resolving the wider case was located for this update.
Why this case remains unresolved in part
Two deaths produced final negligent-manslaughter convictions. That prevents the entire event from being described as wholly unadjudicated. Yet half of the deaths have no identified perpetrator in a final criminal judgment, and the European Court found both the force and the investigation incompatible with the right to life.
The archive therefore uses “partially adjudicated” and counts the file among unresolved cases. It will require revision if SPAK files charges, closes the proceedings with a reasoned decision or a court issues a new judgment.
Case timeline
- 21 January 2011 Three protesters die at the scene; Aleks Nika is critically wounded.
- 4 February 2011 Nika dies in hospital.
- 18 September 2013 The appeal court convicts Prendi and Llupo of negligent manslaughter for two deaths.
- April 2016 The Supreme Court declines the prosecution’s appeal.
- 14 November 2023 The European Court finds substantive and procedural Article 2 violations.
- 12 March 2024 The Supreme Court orders SPAK to register the family’s complaint.
- 15 July 2024 SPAK registers new criminal proceedings.
- 2026 The broader investigation remains active without a final new judgment.
Questions readers ask
Who were the four people killed?
Aleks Nika, Ziver Veizi, Hekuran Deda and Faik Myrtaj.
Were any officers convicted?
Yes. Ndrea Prendi and Agim Llupo received one- and three-year negligent-manslaughter sentences for two deaths.
Were all four deaths solved?
No. Final criminal judgments did not identify the perpetrators responsible for the deaths of Aleks Nika and Hekuran Deda.
What did the European Court decide?
It found substantive and procedural violations of Article 2, the right to life, in Nika v. Albania.
Does the SPAK investigation prove allegations against senior officials?
No. An investigation tests allegations. Questioning a person or registering an offence is not a conviction.
What is the current status?
Two limited convictions are final, while the broader SPAK investigation remained active in 2026.