Former "Most Wanted" suspect appears in court

In November 2020, the accused is said to have shot a man in the leg on the border bridge in Remich.

The representative of the public prosecutor's office said on Wednesday that the facts were still relatively unclear. What is known is that the accused was in a bistro in Remich with three female friends when a fight broke out with two other men. Later, after the situation had calmed down, there was a knock on the bistro window from outside and the accused left the premises to see the knocker. This culminated in the accused shooting a man three times, leaving him with injuries to his leg. However, the sequence of events which led to this shooting is where the stories diverge.

The accused claims he was attacked with a knife and sustained injuries to his thigh. However, there are no physical signs or scarring of such an injury dating back to the day in question. The prosecutor said that the accused's blood was not found anywhere near the incident, and no witnesses, nor the suspect's acquaintances, had noticed an injury. In addition, both the suspect and witnesses have changed their statements on several occasions. However, the accused, who is Albanian, blamed interpreters for these changes.

The public prosecutor's office has demanded a prison sentence of 12 years, justified by the accused's disproportionate reaction towards his victim. The prosecutor said they could not rule out the intent to kill the victim. The gun used by the accused was loaded, and the accused had already been convicted on several occasions for violence in relation to drugs, and had previously been sentenced to 4.5 years in an Italian prison.

The accused was permitted to address the court on the fourth day of the trial on Wednesday. He admitted the charges against him, but continued to insist he was also a victim and said that the person who had wounded him with a knife had not been made to stand trial. He accused the police of not doing their job correctly in following this up.

At the start of the session, footage from CCTV outside the bistro was shown to the court. The videos had caused the trial's postponement following three sessions in 2023 as the accused's lawyer had not received all the footage. However, the CCTV footage did not assist in clearing up matters, as the incident was not in focus and the videos of the incident did not provide a full overview of events.

The defendant's lawyer had hoped to use the recordings to prove his client was unarmed when he left the bar.

The trial is scheduled for two more sessions, with the defendant's lawyer set to make a plea on Thursday.