New draft law on police

TIRANA, Dec. 3 – Deputy Interior Minister Gjergj Lezhja said that a new draft law on police, which he considered a major achievement, had been prepared. He announced this at a news conference with representatives of the international missions operating in Albania (PAMECA, ICITAP) and invited parliamentarians to consider the 132-article draft as a priority. The draft tries to unify the legal contexts involving police. Lezhja said the draft was prepared during a year-long process involving experts from the Justice and Integration ministries, as well as international experts from the two above-mentioned missions and OSCE.
The draft, however, was opposed by non-governmental organizations in an open letter. They had discussed it at a roundtable, to which they had also invited the international experts and other representatives from the media and international community. They said the new draft and the accompanying letter did not justify the replacement of the existing laws. They complained that the state authorities had, in fact, held no consultations with other factors, as they had claimed. They also had a series of complaints on the strategy of community policing.