Prime Minister Edi Rama gave full support for the independence of the judiciary in the future, but demanded respect for standards that coincide with European legal standards, drawing a comparison with the case of the former director of RTSH, Thoma Gëllçi , who won the trial at the Strasbourg Court.
While adding that he does not comment on the guilt or innocence of individuals, the head of government pointed out the problematic nature of the criminal policy followed by the Criminal Court-SPAK for officials, mainly the restrictive measures of imprisonment, when lighter measures could also be applied.
He said that for 5 years the Socialist Party remained silent even when its senior officials were arrested for the sake of the independence of the new judiciary, but recently they can no longer remain silent. He said that even the former director of RTSH, according to Strasbourg, was held in custody, overcoming every legal and criminal argument, since he neither posed a danger, nor was he a fugitive, and moreover, had shown himself to be cooperative.
Rama added that taking people on the street in a van and pressuring them with investigators during interrogations and detentions, " he had not accepted even when he was a citizen with his hands in his pockets, and not now that he is prime minister ."
Rama's speech on the debate on the Justice and Innocence of Gëlç in Strasbourg:
If today there is a total war, to strengthen justice, to make it independent, if today the day has come to show what independent justice is, this is our work and no one else's.
Therefore, on May 11, we want a very strong mandate, because we want to use this window opened in historical circumstances with the EU and become EU members by 2030, closing the negotiations in 2027.
Because yesterday the Strasbourg Court of Human Rights, look what it said about the former director of RTSH, I do not undertake to say whether he is guilty or not, because he did the process, this is another matter, I am not talking about anyone who may have abused or put his hands in the pockets of others, but I am talking about what Europe expresses, not to let justice slip, but to make it equal.
The Albanian authorities had no evidence that Gëllçi could escape from Albania, his surrender was voluntary, because he had returned from abroad and was made available. This shows a lack of professional approach.
I've seen it myself when they take you on the street and when there was neither approach nor departure, no channels or portals, no constitution or law, I've seen what it feels like to be put in a van, told to come with us for a while, taken there and interrogated by an investigator who puts pressure on them.
I didn't accept it when I was a person with my hands in my pockets, and not now that I'm the Prime Minister of Albania.
I came here with a mission, since 1912, to give independence to justice, together with you here and you know, for the first time we have taken our hands off justice, after 5 years in a row we have said we do not comment on any process, any decision of justice.
And when I see it, that fortunately or unfortunately I am a little longer than others, that I have seen that this method in the system is wrong, that here's how it is, detention remained without evaluating whether the detention factors were valid and the courts did not make the proper assessment, contributing to an extension of detention.