Police brutality caught on camera receives wide condemnation; two police officials suspended and under investigation
KUKES, May 6 – Two police officials in the northeastern city of Kukes have been suspended and are under official investigation after they were caught on camera beating an activist and one of them threatened protesters with a loaded handgun.
The move comes after an outcry of public anger after television footage showed how the violence unfolded at a protest against the government’s efforts to collect overdue power bills.
The protesters had been denied a permit to hold a rally on Monday, but decided to protest anyway and aimed to partially close the main highway linking Albania to Kosovo, the protesters and police said.
Several cameras from mainstream media outlets showed a largely peaceful protest with a small physical confrontation as police moved to arrest the organizers after the protesters refused to leave the area.
One of the suspended police officers, in civilian clothes at the time and identified only through his initials in an official police statement as Supervisor A. Xh., is then seen pulling out and loading his handgun and telling the protesters to “back off or I will f**k you up.”
Police arrested one of the protest organizers, Nderim Lushi, who had applied for the permit and been denied. Lushi is seen on camera being dragged in the dirt for several meters by the police, placed into a van, and an officer appears to be punching him once inside.
Ombudsman Igli Totozani called the footage “shocking” and urged authorities to investigate.
The Albanian Helsinki Committee, a human rights organization, also issued a strongly-worded statement condemning the police violence.
The police said the rally was illegal, because it had denied a permit due to not having enough police officers to guard the peace, as there was a political event in the city at the time. It added the officer acted that way out of fear the protesters would take his gun away. However, the footage clearly showed that was not the case.
Interior Minister Saimir Tahiri said Tuesday morning the officers had been suspended pending a proper investigation.
“Despite the fact that the protest by several citizens was illegal and violent, the state police officer has been suspended until there is a full investigation on whether his actions were legal and whether the proper procedures were followed,” Tahiri said in a statement.
Police said they had information the civic organization leader arrested was pushing people to conduct violent acts against public and private entities. Police also said the protesters of the civic group in question had a history of violent acts against police and some of the organizers had previously been detained by authorities.
Kukes is one of Albania’s poorest areas and the hot spot of the recent migration and asylum seeking wave toward several EU states.
This was the latest in a series of protests by its citizens who have asked for debt forgiveness by the state-owned power company over accumulated power bills, part of the government’s rule of law drive.
They say they are too poor to pay bills accumulated over the years. They also say the government has failed to fully compensate them for public projects built on their land.
Kukes had the worst power payment record of all the regions of Albania before the government launched its campaign to collect the bills last year.
