The Res Publica Center, other organizations, lawyers, students and engaged citizens have filed a criminal complaint with SPAK against the Director General of the State Police, Skënder Hita, and other police leaders.
An investigation into the role of Prime Minister Edi Rama and the Minister of Internal Affairs, Ervin Demo, is also required, for the orientations given, communications with Police leaders and their contribution to the creation, support or permission of this mechanism for suppressing the protest.
Skënder Hita is alleged to be the highest-ranking leader responsible for the organization, command and control of the operations. Under his leadership, masked operatives, without numbers and individual identification marks, were deployed in the field, who exercised unlawful force against citizens. Alongside them, unidentified civilians, without uniforms and without any legal authority, appeared, who detained, deprived of their liberty and raped protesters in the presence or in cooperation with the Police.
The deployment of unidentified officers and the toleration of civilians exercising police powers created de facto immunity for the perpetrators of violence. The victim and the public see the perpetrator, but cannot identify him. This was not a coincidence, but part of an organized practice to intimidate citizens and suppress the protest, which continued even after public denunciations. Skënder Hita, Oliger Torba and other police leaders must be held accountable according to their role in planning, ordering and controlling the interventions and failing to take measures to end the illegal situation.
This is not a matter of a few isolated scenes. The report is based on over 180 episodes of lawlessness, documented over several days in Tirana and other cities, with the involvement of various police structures. The repetition, extent and similarity of the modus operandi require the investigation of an organized practice, not just the random outbursts of a few officers.
The police have the right and obligation to use force when necessary to stop violence, protect life, and maintain order. Force becomes unlawful when used unnecessarily, disproportionately, and against a peaceful protester, bystander, minor, or neutralized person.
We also emphasize that the Police failed in their duty to maintain order. During the protests, courthouses were burned and public property was destroyed, without preventing the acts and without isolating the perpetrators. Meanwhile, the police force focused on indiscriminately hitting the protesters, showing that the goal was not to neutralize the violence, but to suppress the protest. The Police should have identified the perpetrators of the violent acts, not treated the entire protest as the enemy and used their failure as an excuse for violence against people who posed no danger.
We are all witnesses to the illegal use of force to intimidate citizens and suppress the protest. The tying of a law student to the railings of the Ministry of Education on the first day of the resistance; inhuman beatings in public; the knocking to the ground of people who were standing with their hands in their pockets; the indiscriminate use of gas and other substances reported as unknown and uncertified, hazardous to health; and the firing of rubber bullets towards the upper body, although their use can cause serious injuries, even loss of life. These are not actions to maintain order, but public demonstrations of force, carried out in front of citizens and cameras, to convey the message that anyone who protests can be raped and humiliated.
This campaign of terror has been made visible to intimidate the public, while the perpetrators have been made invisible to shield them from accountability. The victim is used as an example, the masked operative or civilian remains nameless. This is the mechanism of impunity that needs to be investigated.
This report does not stop at the person seen hitting. Separate reports have been filed and will continue to be filed against the perpetrators.
SPAK is required to investigate the entire chain of command and determine whether the violence was a deviation from the police operation or an organized, ordered or permitted instrument for intimidating citizens and suppressing the protest. The Strasbourg Court (ECHR) has set clear standards for investigating police violence, impunity and the responsibility of leaders, among others in cases against Russia and against Georgia, also analyzed in the report.
For us, as legal professionals and beyond, the activity we seek to investigate represents a dangerous departure from the Western model we aspire to, and a return to a regime where state violence is used to suppress civic dissent.
We are confident that SPAK will demonstrate accountability, integrity and impartiality, living up to public expectations and will act swiftly.
