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Amnesty International Report 2002 - Albania

Covering events from January-December 2001

Republic of Albania
Head of state: Rexhep Meidani
Head of government: Ilir Meta
Capital: Tirana
Population: 3.1 million
Official language: Albanian
Death penalty: abolitionist for ordinary crimes

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Detainees, including children, continued to be frequently ill-treated and sometimes tortured during arrest and in police custody, usually to force confessions. Further steps were taken to provide human rights training and to monitor human rights violations by police, and some police officers were dismissed or suspended from service after complaints of ill-treatment were made against them. Judicial proceedings against police officers accused of ill-treating detainees were infrequent, but there were several cases in which police officers were referred for trial and at least three police officers were reported to have been convicted by courts. Conditions in which detainees were held in police stations were often poor, with severe overcrowding.

Background

The national elections, held in June, were won by the governing Socialist Party. The elections were monitored by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, which concluded that the conduct of the campaign, media coverage and election administration had improved compared with past elections. Various flaws were noted, however, including serious irregularities in the voting process in a limited number of zones, and instances of police interference. The main opposition party, the Democratic Party (DP), complained of election rigging and of instances of police violence, including an incident in the town of Kavaja during the pre-election campaign, when DP demonstrators were alleged to have been beaten by police. Organized crime, involving drugs trafficking, and the trafficking in women, children and would-be immigrants to countries in the European Union, continued to be a major problem despite measures to combat it. In October an International Anti-trafficking Centre was established in Vlora, to which Albania, Germany, Greece and Italy contributed.

Torture and ill-treatment

The torture and ill-treatment of detainees during arrest or subsequently in police stations was common.

• In January Azgan Haklaj, a local DP leader in the northern district of Tropoja, filed a complaint alleging that masked police officers had beaten him with rifle butts while arresting him at his home on the night of 20 January, and had continued to beat and kick him while driving him to Tirana. He was detained on charges of "taking part in illegal demonstrations" and "violence against property", in connection with violent clashes between armed men and police in the town of Bajram Curri in November 2000. A forensic medical report confirmed he had injuries consistent with these allegations. The Ministry of Public Order stated that police officers had resorted to force only because he had violently resisted arrest; they denied his allegations that his wife and child had been ill-treated during his arrest. An investigation into the allegations had not been completed by the end of the year. Azgan Haklaj was released in July after gaining parliamentary immunity as a result of being elected a deputy in June.
• In March Lorenc Çallo alleged that he was punched and kicked in the town of Pogradec by a police officer who wrongly suspected him of having fired a gun. The officer also hit him with a radio handset, injuring his left eye. Eyewitnesses and a forensic medical examination supported Lorenc Çallo's allegations.
• Çlirim Proko, from the southern village of Lazarat, was arrested on 16 March in connection with an incident in September 2000 when a government minister was prevented from entering the village by a group of armed men. He was also accused of wounding a police officer. Several police officers reportedly took him from the police station in Gjirokastra and drove him into the hills outside the city, where they beat him. Bruising on his hands and the soles of his feet were reportedly visible to his lawyer and to a doctor who examined him nine days later.

Ill-treatment of minors

Local human rights organizations reported that police routinely ill-treated minors during arrest and detention in order to force them to confess to crimes. In March the Legal Clinic for Minors stated that almost all of the 45 minors they had interviewed during the previous six months who had been detained in custody or were serving sentences had been subjected to beatings in police stations.

• In October the Albanian Human Rights Group (AHRG), which conducted interviews with 47 minors in two prisons (Vaqarr and Tirana 313), reported that all 47 alleged they had been ill-treated by police or prison guards. In one case, guards at Tirana 313 prison had beaten a group of seven minors who had repeatedly called for medical help for one of their cellmates who was ill. According to the AHRG, the marks of the beating were clearly visible on all members of the group, except for the sick child. The AHRG was also concerned that in Tirana 313 prison minors were held together with adult detainees.

Investigation of complaints against police

A number of senior police officers received training to provide human rights education to their subordinates. In March the Ministry of Public Order publicized legal provisions relating to the rights of citizens in their contacts with the police, including the right not to be subjected to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment. In September the Ministry opened a telephone complaints line and within the first month reportedly received 33 complaints, many of them from Tirana and Elbasan, alleging physical ill-treatment or verbal abuse. As a result, eight police officers were reportedly suspended from duty or dismissed for these or other abuses.

In July the Ombudsman's Office reported that in the past year it had investigated 153 complaints of police ill-treatment and had found 74 of them to be justified. As a result of its recommendations, the Ministry of Public Order dismissed two police officers and 10 others were transferred or demoted. A decision was pending in 11 other cases.

Despite the frequency of complaints of ill-treatment, few police officers were brought to trial.

• In December 2001, penal proceedings were restarted against a police officer accused of beating and burning with a cigarette Ergest Shele, an 11-year-old orphan wrongly suspected of theft, in June 2000. In October 2001, the Ombudsman had called on the Prosecutor General to ensure that proceedings were reopened following a decision by a Saranda prosecutor to halt proceedings in December 2000.
• Korça District Military Court tried three police officers from Elbasan alleged to have brutally ill-treated and injured Naim Pulaku in September 2000; one officer was found guilty of "abuse of office" and two others were acquitted. The Prosecutor's Office filed an appeal against this judgment. In December 2001 Naim Pulaku was again beaten and injured by two police officers, one of whom, he alleged, was the chief of police of Elbasan district, who was shortly afterwards dismissed from the police service and charged. At least two other cases involving allegations of torture and ill-treatment were referred to court for trial, including that of Ferit Çepi, who lost the sight of an eye after being tortured by police officers in November 2000.

Conditions of detention

Conditions in police cells were harsh, amounting in some cases to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. In March the AHRG reported the lack of space and poor food and hygiene at Gjirokastra police station. In March and October the Albanian Helsinki Committee (AHC) reported severe overcrowding at police stations in Fier, Korça, Vlora, Gramshi, Lushnja and Elbasan. In July Rrëshen police station was reportedly so crowded that detainees were forced to take turns to lie down to sleep.

AI country reports/visits

Report

• Albania: Torture and ill-treatment – an end to impunity? (AI Index: EUR 11/001/2001)

Visit

In March AI representatives visited Albania to conduct research.