Author: Klevis Paloka
Officially, the most recent report on police behavior from 2019 states that 19 percent of citizen complaints are against police officers, which are reported for arbitrary behavior to the Internal Affairs and Complaints Service. Such a figure shows that Albanian citizens are equally worried about corrupt policemen as well as violent ones. But complaints about arbitrary behavior are related to lack of ethics, non-respect of rights during various police actions to violence in police regions. A concern that at different times has exposed the police for arbitrary behavior, especially during operations to arrest suspects.
Annual report of 2019, SHCA
But the most typical case that showed the way the police react was again the seven-day protests, held day after day immediately after the murder of Klodian Rasha. The 25-year-old was shot dead with his service weapon while running to escape a patrol, in an attempt to disobey the Shqiponja forces. Contradictory information about the event, which raised questions about the actions of the policeman who killed Rasha, ignited protests through social networks that ended with the resignation of Interior Minister Sandër Lleshaj. The position of the Director General of the State Police, Ardi Veliu, remained intact despite the demands of the protesters for his removal and not long after the scandal of the beating of a minor by the police forces, for whose mother the Chief of Police had used even a harsh language himself, after which he apologized.
This time, the problems with the violence in the protest were brought before the judge of personal security measures, the arrested and their lawyers. In marathon sessions filled with escorts, each one showed how he was handcuffed for no reason, although meanwhile the police insisted that the policemen's lives had been endangered by hard objects and pyrotechnics.
What happened from December 8 to 15 was a series that started with protests and ended in the evening with arrests and escorts. "Late in the evening I found myself at the police station, I didn't know where my son was, where he had been, what he had done", tells ACQJ, Ismail B., a father who spent the hours after the protest both in the local police and in the court until his son was released by the magistrate Shefkie Demiraj.
Among the young adults, it is observed the escorting and detention of minors who, despite the charter of rights, which requires the notification of parents and the psychologist, were kept in the police regions in a flagrant manner. A minor with the initials AV, it turns out that he was raped by civil police, while the body that monitored the police's activity says that "in his health record where this claim was reflected, it was noted that the minor had a hematoma on the forehead and jaw on the left arm".
At this point, the Albanian Committee of Helsinki emphasizes in a letter forwarded to the general director of the police and a number of other officials that during the examination of the protests, a lack of documentation was noticed where the guardians of the minors would have to sign. "Not documenting the access of the psychologist to the log of the entries of persons in solitary confinement and not notifying the parents is against the law", mentions KShH, listing details such as the signature of only the minor who was in the conditions of deprivation of liberty, even though he may have been held for a short time in the police station.
There was only violence or other mistakes?
Criticized for the reaction from time to time in various protests over the years, to what extent did the police exceed their powers during the protests of December 2020?
"The biggest and most obvious problem was the alleged violence", claimed a source at the Internal Affairs and Complaints Service, a structure under the Ministry of the Interior that guarantees the implementation of the law by police officers and checks them for violations against the interests of citizens. According to the official source of the Albanian Center for Quality Journalism, this service is handling the complaint of a young man who insists that he was arrested and raped in violation of the constitution and freedom of assembly. But to the ACQJ's official question to publish details of these complaints, SHÇBA replied that 7 complaints are in process related to the claims about the actions of the State Police structures during the December protests. Of these 7 complaints, 4 of them are in the verification process, while for the other 3 complaints, all verifications have been completed and the investigative materials have been referred to the Prosecutor's Office at the Court of First Instance in Tirana. As for the initiation of the disciplinary investigation, SHCA states that so far only 2 police officers are under investigation.
But what happened to the arrested people, did they use violence, did they arrest some of these people without concrete evidence?
5 young people interviewed by the Albanian Center for Quality Journalism, who protested and demanded justice for Klodian Rasha, insist that they did not commit any illegal act, or were not involved in the protests at all. Despite this, they ended up at Tirana's police station for hours.
Fatjon Jahaj tells the "Albanian Center for Quality Journalism" that he did not engage in the protest, but accidentally found himself under the hands of the police because he was passing by the place of the protest.
"I was not in protest, I was passing in front of the presidency for my own pleasure and when I passed there was no protest. There were no people gathered, so I was not in protest for a single day, I was walking towards the artificial lake when I was stopped and arrested". says Jahaj.
The 25-year-old, who has worked in the army for 3 years, remembers that violence was used in Police Station No. 1, immediately after he refused to sign the statement where he had to admit that he was a protester.
"I refused to sign the statement that he wrote as if I had participated in the protest, while it is not true at all."
Jahaj was arrested on December 11 and after being held for 3 days in the detention cells, the court imposed a light measure on him, that of "15-day prison term". The young man was released from custody in Fushë Kruja on December 30, after the Prosecution lacked additional evidence through which his illegal actions could be proved. Apart from the freedom you were blatantly denied, the second damage to Jahaj was the loss of his job.
"I worked in the assembly of cameras and alarm systems with a security company, now I am unemployed because I lost my job due to the arrest and long stay in the Police region and in the prison of Fushë-Kruja". He turned to the People's Advocate in the hope that the violence against him will be clarified.
"I filed the complaint for all those actions that the State Police did against me", Jahaj closes the story.
Another person who was arrested because he was filming the protest is Nderim Kurti, arrested on December 11. He saw prison until January 8, 2021. He also claims that he was beaten all the way from the boulevard to the police station.
"I went out to film the protest and on the second day I received a request from a social network managed by immigrants, Stopfakealbania.al, to film the entire event directly. On December 11, when I was arrested, when I was running towards my house, I was walking on the sidewalk, when at that moment the police van came and the police officer ordered me to stop. The officer told me that you are under arrest because you threw stones, I told him that I was just filming, but he did not take my words into consideration at all and arrested me. They grabbed me by force and put me in the police van and during the transport to the police station they used violence, they punched me in several parts of my body. I even had marks on the side of my forehead, but as the days passed, those marks disappeared, I asked for a medical-legal examination to prove the violence, but they refused." says Kurti.
He was left in custody, according to the testimony of five police officers who, despite the claims, did not present any evidence against him.
"I spent 3 days in the detention cells, and then the Court imposed a 10-day prison sentence. After 10 days, even though the prosecutor did not find new evidence, the Court decided to change the decision and sentenced me to prison. I was sent to the IEVP of Fushë-Kruja to serve the sentence given by the Court. After appealing the decision by my lawyers, I managed to get out of prison on January 8, 2021". said the 25-year-old.
Kurti also confesses that he stayed for 3 weeks without communicating with his family and that he was forced to be quarantined in an isolation room for 14 days in Fushë-Kruja Prison.
Unlike his peer Jahaj, Kurti insists that his next action is to submit a report to the prosecutor's office. But until the day of publication of the article, he had not submitted this criminal complaint to the prosecution.
The protest was not tolerated even in the premises of the police!
Others claim during the interview with ACQJ that they were violently treated even when they were locked inside the escort rooms.
For the excellent student of General Medicine, Arjon Kuçuku, the court's decision was easier. He was ordered to remain under house arrest.
"I was lying on the white lines at the bridge that takes you to the Police Department, being very peaceful there, as that was the purpose of lying on the ground. I was surrounded and arrested there by one of the policemen giving an order telling the others to surround him and arrest him. They used violence against me during the escort inside the police station, an officer of the Arrows who constantly gave me orders and I obeyed his orders, but he hit me on the legs and head with the fact that I was not obeying his orders. While inside the Police Directorate, a police officer with number 00992 hit me. He hit me because I wrote something on the wall to pass the time. He came into the escort room and kicked me on the left cheek, on the right cheek and on the back, and this is proven by the security cameras inside the Police Department. Two other people were arrested with me and they came out within 10 hours. After I stayed in custody for 72 hours, the Court gave the verdict with house arrest for 14 days and after finishing this sentence, I am now obliged to appear without a deadline because the investigations have not been closed". says the excellent student of General Medicine who is preparing the complaint to the SCBA.
When there was no violence, there was a violation of the law...
Unlike the three victims, 23-year-old Vilson Kulemani was not raped, but according to him, the arrest was procedurally incorrect.
"I was held for 92 hours in the security rooms when the deadline to be held is 72 hours. The first decision of the Court was house arrest for 17 days, a decision which I appealed and the Court of Appeal decided to make me appear twice a month." says Kulemani.
For the 23-year-old, the measure of house arrest has had a negative impact on his family, as he is the person who takes care of his mother, who is disabled.
"House arrest has prevented me from performing some Services that she needs, so this decision has affected my entire family." concludes the 23-year-old.
Violence in the districts...?
As in Tirana, the protests for Klodiani also involved several other cities and as a result the local police escorted and arrested suspects there.
One of those arrested in the city of Durrës is Artion Barjamaj. With suspicions of illegal assembly and spreading panic in the public, the young man ended up under flagrant arrest.
"On December 15, after the decision in the official notebook that the killing of Klodian Rasha was accidental, we decided together with three friends to protest in a special way, we provided a coffin and placed some writings. First we gathered at the Palace of Culture towards the north of the city, we had by our side a coffin with an Albanian flag and some writings like "Who is next?", "Justice for Klodianin", "Democracy", "Justice in Albania", yes we were walking on the sidewalk and the State Police came in front of us and stopped us with the argument of illegal assembly and spreading panic in the public or in other words false information. After some discussions between the police officers, they decided to accompany us to the police station and then announced the arrest for me and one of the other protesters." says Barjamaj.
His arrest was deemed illegal a few hours later.
"According to the court, I was a participant in the protest and not an organizer, while the second point was not taken into consideration of the spread of panic, there is also a legal problem, since the State of Emergency Act has expired and the rally is based on the Constitution every man's right. Considering that a serious problem has been caused to me from the point of view of work, I thought of filing a criminal complaint with the State Police", says the 30-year-old.
And what was the most difficult moment for him?
"The part where I was affected the most is the part when I was escorted by the Police to the Court and there they put handcuffs on me and I felt like I was a criminal who had committed a serious crime", closes his story for the Albanian Center for Quality Journalism, Barjamaj.
The police in front of the protesters
But unlike the descriptions of the young people and the prosecutors who went down to the courtrooms and where in some cases they asked for additional time for the evidence, the Police reported with conviction about the damages.
"As a result of violence with stones, stone slabs, hard objects and pyrotechnic materials, 5 police officers were injured, causing serious physical damage, horizontal and vertical signage on the above-mentioned roads, traffic lights, street lighting chandeliers were destroyed, Garbage bins were set on fire, as well as large material damages were caused to state institutions and private entities., was a part of the announcement of the State Police dated December 11, 2020 for the arrest of 59 people.
The criminal offenses that were addressed to the gatherers started from the organization and participation in illegal gatherings and demonstrations". "The opposition of the public order police officer", "Obstruction of the circulation of means of transport", "Disturbance of public peace", "Destruction of property by fire" and "Disobedience to the order of the public order police officer" and "Keeping and using explosives and pyrotechnics". These charges cost the freedom of 92 citizens in the capital, four of whom were minors between the ages of 16 and 17. Another 345 were processed at large and referred in this condition for further investigation.
What did the court and the Ombudsman say?
From this number of arrested persons, the Court of First Instance of Tirana gave the first slap to the police by sending most of the suspects home. Only 3 people remained in prison, the others were released from prison for 10 to 15 days and 36 were released under the measure of obligation to appear.
Monitored by the People's Advocate, the protest was seen in a different light. It was the police stations filled with protesters that were considered overcrowded.
"Also, in the preliminary report of December 11 and 12, it is stated that the Local Directorate of Tirana, on 11.12.2020, found 33 people arrested, a number that is high compared to the relevant capacities, especially in the conditions of the need to guarantee distancing due to of the health emergency", it is stated in the preliminary report of the People's Advocate for December 11-12.
*Cover photo taken from Dosja.al
