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Torture and ill-treatment: Casesheets

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ALBANIA: torture and ill-treatment

Amnesty International is concerned that the torture and ill-treatment of detainees by police is widespread in Albania. The organization is also concerned that few allegations of ill-treatment by police officers are promptly , thoroughly and impartially investigated.

Torture and ill-treatment are prohibited under international treaties ratified by Albania, which include the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment of Punishment (CAT), and the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR).Albania also acceded to the 1992 UN Convention of the Rights of the Child (CRC) in 1992.

The Case of E.Sh

Summary: E. Sh, an 11-year-old orphan, was arrested on 26 June 2000 in Saranda, Albania. The police suspected that he had stolen a handbag. He alleges that during his detention he was beaten, cut with a knife and burned with cigarettes. The accusation of theft later turned out to be unfounded. Criminal proceedings against the officer concerned have been dropped.

On 26 June 2000 E. Sh. was arrested by a police officer - Rrapo Xhavara - on suspicion of stealing a handbag. He was taken to Saranda Police Station where he was detained from 4.30pm for 20 hours until 12.30 pm the following day. This detention was in itself illegal: under Article 12 of the Albanian Penal Code, children under 14 years of age are not criminally responsible, and can therefore not be detained for a criminal offence.

Although he was under 14 years of age, he was treated as an accused person at the police station and questioned about the theft. There was no lawyer or adult guardian present. Although there was no evidence against him, during his detention E. Sh. admitted responsibility for the crime - even though another person was later found to have stolen the handbag.

According to E. Sh, while in detention, he was beaten with a rubber truncheon, cut with a knife on his right arm, and burned with a cigarette on his body. This was confirmed by the staff of the Saranda orphanage - where he lives; they gave him medical treatment after he left the police station.

Unusually, the case was reported in the press, and a month after the incident an official from the People’s Advocate’s Office (Ombudsperson) visited E. Sh. to investigate the report. The knife-cut on his right arm and the cigarette burns on his body were still visible. As a result of the visit, the People’s Advocate took up his case, and requested the Saranda District Prosecutor to start proceedings against Rrapo Xhavara, the officer alleged to have ill-treated E. Sh..The People’s Advocate also recommended to the Ministry of Public Order that Rrapo Xhavara should be dismissed from the police service.

The Minister of Public Order reportedly acted on the recommendation - and dismissed Rrapo Xhavara - but the Saranda District Prosecutor dismissed the case against him without even notifying the People’ Advocate.¹The People’s Advocate’s Office then asked the Procurator General to reopen the case, and in March 2001 the Procurator General’s Office indicated that there might be technical grounds to appeal the decision dismissing the case .

Amnesty International believes that the allegations by E. Sh. against Rrapo Xhavara, a former officer of the Saranda Police, should be thoroughly and impartially investigated, and if these allegations are substantiated, the officer brought to justice.

The organization also urges the Albanian Ministry of Public Order to issue specific instructions to law enforcement officers to ensure the protection and rights of minors who are detained in police custody, and to obtain expert advice in this field.

The Case of Azgan Haklaj

Summary. On the night of 20-21 January 2001, Azgan Haklaj was arrested. He alleges that during the arrest he, his wife and his child were assaulted by the police. He was assaulted again in the back of the police vehicle as he was taken to Tirana Police Headquarters, where he was detained in investigative custody and where his ill-treatment continued.

Azgan Haklaj is the president of the Tropoja branch of the Democratic Party, he is also President of the Municipal Council of the northern town of Bajram Curri. He was arrested at home on the night of 20 - 21 January 2001 by members of the special forces (RENEA) and taken to Tirana. Azgan Haklaj described the events of that night:

“...There was a knock at the door of my apartment, and suddenly the door burst open, and without waiting for a reply, about 30 uniformed police wearing masks entered my home, and grabbed me - I had just risen from bed in my nightwear - and beat me with rifle butts, causing injuries and bleeding, as a result of which I lost consciousness. They struck my wife, also injuring her and causing her to bleed, they didn’t even stop short at hitting my one-year-old child. They searched the house, turning everything upside down. When I and my wife requested to be shown a court decision for these acts, they gave us a cruel blow as answer. After they had searched the house, as described above, they took me away by force, dressed only in nightwear, and barefoot, dragging me down the stairs of the apartment block while hitting me. They put me in one of their vans, and pulling two masks over my head they made me lie on the floor of the van and drove off to Tirana. On the way, as I lay on the van’s floor, they kicked and hit me with whatever they had to hand. As a result, for most of the journey I was unconscious. This treatment continued at Police Headquarters in Tirana”.

On 21 January Tirana District Court ordered Azgan Haklaj to be detained for investigation on charges under Articles 231 and 262 (1) of the Penal Code, which deal with “Violence against property...which aims gravely to disturb public order” and “Taking part in illegal demonstrations”. The charges, which he denies, relate to events which took place during a Democratic Party rally in Bajram Curri on 28 November 2000. The demonstration began peacefully but escalated into violent clashes between armed men and the police. The police station in Bajram Curri was reportedly attacked and at least one civilian was shot dead by police and others wounded.

Azgan Haklaj was remanded in custody and taken to Tirana Prison no. 313 on 21 January 2001. On 22 January 2001 he filed a formal complaint with the Procurator General in which he requested that proceedings on charges of “Abuse of office”, “Perpetrating arbitrary acts” and “Violence against a residence” (Articles 248, 250 and 112 of the Penal Code) be initiated against a named officer and others under his command.

An investigation was started and a forensic medical expert examined Azgan Haklaj at the prison at the request of Tirana District Procurator’s Office. The forensic medical report no.45, dated 23 January 2001, listed numerous injuries, including a wound to the head, bruises and abrasions on the head and face, bruises on the lumbar (lower back) region, the left arm, left buttock and thigh, the right shin, and toes of the right foot. The report concluded that: “These wounds have been caused by hard objects such as rubber truncheons, kicks, rifle butts, other hard objects”.

On 25 January his wife, his lawyer and two representatives of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) visited Azgan Haklaj in prison. On 30 January the OSCE press office in Tirana issued a statement confirming that Azgan Haklaj “had received injuries, bruising and lacerations which are consistent with his allegations of police assault whilst in police custody”. The OSCE, having made a formal request to the Albanian authorities to undertake a full and thorough investigation into the allegations, received assurances that this would happen.

On 27 January 2001 the newspaper Gazeta Shqiptare reported that sources at the Ministry of Public Order denied that Azgan Haklaj’s wife or child had been ill-treated by police and stated that force had been used only against Azgan Haklaj because he had violently resisted arrest.

The investigation of Azgan Haklaj’s complaint (Penal case no.112) has been transferred to the Procurator’s Office of Tropoja, which has jurisdiction over Bajram Curri, where his initial ill-treatment is alleged to have taken place. However, in early April 2001 his lawyer reported that Azgan Haklaj had only been formally questioned once in connection with his complaint, on 21 February 2001, and claimed that no other investigation work had been yet undertaken by police or prosecutors. Meanwhile, the investigation into the charges against Azgan Haklaj is reported to be nearly at an end.

Amnesty International calls on the Albanian authorities to conduct a prompt, impartial and thorough investigation into the ill-treatment of Azgan Haklaj, and - if appropriate - to bring those found guilty of such ill-treatment to justice.

The case of Rushit Korteshi

Summary: Rushit Korteshi is a Rom living in Yzberisht on the outskirts of Tirana. He was beaten and injured by police officers in 1999. In April 2000 the Tirana District Court found the officers guilty; following an appeal to the Supreme Court, they were sentenced to two year’s suspension from their jobs, As of March 2001, the convicted officers remained in their jobs and reportedly continued to harass and threaten Rushit Korteshi.

On 8 August 1999, Rushit Korteshi was detained by two police officers without any explanation and taken to the police station in the Kombinat area of Tirana. There, the officers Sadush Dingo and Krenar Veizi, along with Hamza Plaku, the chief of the area’s Crime Police, beat him with a metal bar until he lost consciousness. They then doused his head in a wash-basin to revive him and took him out to the courtyard of the police compound and continued to beat him - calling him “ a rich gypsy with bags of money”- until he agreed to give them money and land.

After he was released Rushit Korteshi filed a complaint against the officers at the Tirana district Prosecutor’s Office and obtained a medical report detailing his injuries. Following an investigation, the three officers were charged with “Perpetrating arbitrary actions” under Article 250 of the Penal Code. At the trial before Tirana District Court in April 2000, the prosecutor requested that they be sentenced to imprisonment and suspended from their jobs from three years. However, on 8 April 2000, the court sentenced them to be fined, arguing that a heavier sentence might provoke them to take revenge on Rushit Korteshi.

The prosecutor lodged an appeal against sentence, and on 7 July 2000, the Court of Appeal increased the sentence to two years’ suspension from their jobs and an 18 months’ suspended prison sentence. Though the decision of the Court of Appeal is final and binding, the officers were not suspended; and so on 18 July 2000 Rushit Korteshi filed an appeal with the Prosecutor General’s Office, asking for the sentence to be executed.

On his way home from the office, several police officers - friends of the convicted officers - tried to arrest him. He escaped, but when he arrived home, he found his house surrounded by police vans. Shots were fired from the vans at the roof of his house. He was then arrested again, without charge and taken to Tirana Police Station no. 2, where he was detained for 31 hours. During this time pressure was put on him by police-officers - to stop his appeal for the enforcement of the court sentence against the three officers.

Amnesty International understands that following this incident the convicted officers remained in their posts and continued to persecute Rushit Korteshi. One of the officers allegedly forced Rushit Korteshi to give him a piece of land.

Amnesty International believes that there should be no impunity for torture and ill-treatment, and is calling on the Albanian authorities to implement the sentence against the three officers found guilty of the ill-treatment of Rushit Korteshi.