At the Basic Court of Prizren, today continued the judicial review for the murder of 26-year-old Auron Thaqi, in which the accused are Enes Ay and Hajrullah Brcani. In today’s session, the forensic medical expert, Bergita Curri, who prepared the autopsy report of the victim’s body, gave her testimony, reports KosovaPress.
Before the court, she stated that the fatal wound which caused the death of Auron Thaqi was the wound in the front region of the groin or the right thigh.
She emphasized that the bleeding caused by this wound led to the death of the late Auron Thaqi.
In addition to this wound, the forensic medical expert Bergita Curri testified that Auron Thaqi had another wound on his back, which did not penetrate any structure beyond the skin and subcutaneous tissue.
“From the findings during the autopsy examination of the body, in addition to the injury in the right femoral region, a puncture wound was also identified in the upper part of the left shoulder. From the examination of the internal and vital organs, no other cause was found except bleeding and hemorrhagic shock… The fatal wound was the one in the front region of the groin or the right thigh, while the second wound noted in the external examination was entirely harmless,” she said.
The victim’s family lawyer, Esat Gutaj, stated that a photo album should have been attached to the expertise report and requested details about the wounds the victim had sustained on the critical night — details which were presented before the court by the forensic medical expert.
“The injury in the front part of the right thigh was altered due to surgical intervention, so we could not describe the characteristics of the wound, but we described only its consequences in the paragraph on medical treatment, where a surgical incision of 18 cm closed with 14 stitches was noted. Upon opening the sutures, bleeding of the soft tissues and blood-soaked gauze were observed. A special dissection of the anatomical layers was performed to accurately identify the damaged structure, and in this case, we identified sutures in the right main femoral artery… The wound on the back was a puncture wound measuring 0.5 by 0.5 cm and a depth of 0.2 cm, which did not penetrate any structure other than the skin and subcutaneous tissue. In this case, the object causing the injury was, with high probability, a hard, pointed object,” she said.
When asked by the presiding judge what kind of object caused the wounds, the forensic expert Bergita Curri stated that the second wound on the back might have been caused by a screwdriver, though she did not exclude the possibility that the fatal wound was caused by a similar object.
“In the description I gave for the second wound, which was on the back and was unaltered by sutures or surgical intervention, the first thing that came to mind among possible objects was a screwdriver-type tool — rounded, pointed, and capable of puncturing. However, for the fatal wound, since it was altered, I cannot exclude the use of a sharp object, and therefore, I cannot rule out the existence of two different weapons, nor that the wound in the femoral region was caused by a similar tool,” she said.
The forensic medicine specialist denied the possibility that the death of Auron Thaqi occurred due to medical negligence.
“In this specific case, no elements of medical negligence were found that could have led to the death of the patient… The reason for death was the physiological dynamics triggered in the victim’s body by blood loss, which I believe was considerable, since even if the medical team had been next to him and performed surgical intervention within minutes, it is estimated that up to 15% of the total blood volume could be lost within 2–3 minutes. The victim was found on the street… From all this, I conclude that at the moment the body was found, he had already lost between 15–40% of his total blood volume. Every action taken by medical personnel was an attempt to save the patient, but unfortunately, it resulted in death because the blood loss had already initiated a chain of physiological changes that made it impossible to restore vital organ functions,” she said.
In addition to the two defendants, Enes Ay and Hajrullah Brcani, the session was also attended by the victim’s mother, Esmarie Gashi, who said she learned today that her son had two wounds on his body.
Through tears, she demanded life imprisonment for those accused of killing her son.
“They stabbed him twice, and I only found out today that he was also stabbed in the back. There was some cover-up — they hid it and didn’t even record it in the police report. Before you today, I learned what happened to my son, what they wanted to do to him, why they did that to him. I believe in the court, and they should receive the proper punishment — life imprisonment,” she said.
At the end of today’s session, the defense attorney of Hajrullah Brcani requested that his client be released from pre-trial detention.
The 26-year-old Auron Thaqi lost his life after being stabbed by an individual in the city of Prizren.
It is suspected that after being stabbed, Auron was thrown from a moving car onto the road.
He died at the University Clinical Center of Kosovo, as he did not survive his injuries, in July of last year.
