Formal charges filed on the Jan. 21 protest deaths

TIRANA, April 30 – Albanian prosecutors have charged two security officials with murder for the deaths of four opposition supporters shot during an anti-government demonstration a year ago.
Murder charges were sent to the court for Ndrea Prendi, head of a state security service for government institutions and officials, known as the Guard of the Republic, and a senior officer, Agim Llupo.
Prendi’s driver, Margarit Kume, and an IT technician for the prime minister, Armando Kasaj were accused with milder charges on concealing evidence.
The probe of nine other guardsmen is canceled.
The four protesters were killed in January 2011 during a mass anti-government rally organized by the opposition against alleged corruption and vote rigging by Albania’s conservative government.
Albanian prosecutors were assisted by the FBI in the process.
Prosecutors have also requested that Albania’s Parliament lift the immunity of three opposition lawmakers under investigation for allegedly organizing the mass protest and inciting violence.
The four protesters were killed in January in 2011 during a mass anti-government rally organized by the opposition against alleged corruption and vote rigging by Albania’s conservative government.
The violence during the Jan. 21, 2011, rally was the worst seen in the politically volatile country in more than a decade. More than 20,000 protesters gathered outside the country’s main government building throwing stones and other objects at police. Scores of protesters and security officers were wounded as police mounted baton charges and used bullets, tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannon. At least 15 police vehicles were overturned and burned.
The violence was an embarrassment for Albania, a NATO member that is seeking European Union membership and improvement of its internationally criticized election record.
Prendi, who is accused of shooting dead one of the four protesters, heads an Interior Ministry security service known as Guard of the Republic. Kume, his driver, is accused of trying to help Prendi suppress evidence of his alleged role in the protesters’ shooting deaths. Kasaj, the government technician, is accused of deleting evidence from an 11-camera security computer.
The Socialist-led opposition maintains that conservative Prime Minister Sali Berisha is personally responsible for the protest deaths, while the government argues that its opponents tried to use violence to force their way into office.
Berisha, who has suspended Prendi from his position, claimed the prosecutor general has sided with those who tried to bring down his government. He has harshly criticized and accused Prosecutor General Ina Rama of siding with the opposition as “a core element of the Jan. 21, 2011 events.”
Albania’s opposition staged protests for more than a year following Albania’s 2009 general election, but tensions rose sharply when then-Deputy Prime Minister Ilir Meta resigned amid allegations of corruption. Last week the Supreme Court acquitted him of the charge.