Two days ago, the Korça Prosecution Office closed the investigations and brought Ilirjan Selmani to trial , after he is accused of the murder and burning of his partner, an event that occurred in July last year.
The investigative file provided by tch explains the circumstances of the incident and the attempts that Selmani made to hide the crime, although the evidence showed otherwise.
Shortly after committing the crime, he went to his neighbor, stating that he " felt in danger ."
"Ilirjani said that he had gone to Korça to visit some of his cousins and that he had returned from Korça. The declarant asked Ilirjani how things were going and he told him that things were going very badly, that he felt in danger, as he had a girlfriend who had found another girlfriend and that he had given up on her. According to the declarant, he had advised Ilirjani not to continue the relationship with the victim due to the large age difference between them. Ilirjani stayed at the declarant's house for about 3 minutes and then left. To the declarant's knowledge, Ilirjani had been in a relationship with the victim for about 7 years," the neighbor stated.
In the perpetrator's testimony before the investigative group, he stated that he had a 3-year relationship with the victim but had not met her on the day she died.
"He stated that he last met the victim on 27.07.2025 at around 19.00, at the bridge near "Naim Frashëri" street, she asked him if he would go to her house and he told her that he would not go and she replied "Better than me telling you when you come home".
After 19:00, the citizen under investigation states that he went out alone and walked around the city of Pogradec and at 23:00. He states that he returned to the city of Pogradec around 05:00 in the morning on 28.07.2025 and then went towards Kozeta's house.
When he entered the building, he noticed that outside its door were a green bag and a black bag, inside which were rags, blankets, and blood-stained cards. He took them and threw them in the trash can.
The door to Kozeta's apartment was apparently closed, he did not check if it was locked. After throwing the bags in the trash can, he returned to Kozeta's apartment and checked the entrance to the apartment out of concern, saw that no one was there and then left for his apartment.
Near his apartment, he heard the sound of a car and saw a citizen named B.. According to the citizen under investigation, he got out of the car and said, " Hey Ilir Kalaja, yesterday at 11 pm, Kozeta looked for you in the neighborhood at home and asked all the guys in the neighborhood about you, because she was drunk ," while the citizen under investigation told him that he was not interested in Kozeta.
Then, his brother L. came out to the window of B.'s house, and invited Ilirjan to have a coffee. Ilirjan went, stayed there for about 15 minutes, and at around 06:00 he went to his house.
About 20 minutes later, the police went to his apartment. When asked why he had gone to the victim's house, he stated that he had not been there during dinner, but had gone in the morning, around 05:00, to meet her and stay at the victim's house, since his house was far away.
He went to Kozeta's house once every three days and slept there. According to him, on the day of the incident, he did not enter Kozeta's apartment, but only threw the bags in the trash, stayed for about 5 minutes and left.
Asked about the reason for his return to the main road, in front of the victim's apartment, after leaving a few minutes earlier, he stated that he returned because he was worried because he had seen that the bags he had thrown in the trash contained blood and he was worried that something had happened to Kozeta. He states that he did not see smoke or flames in Kozeta's apartment," the investigative file states .
But according to the prosecution, the perpetrator of the criminal offense set fire to the victim's apartment, in three places, and then caused the victim's death by cutting his throat./ tch