The Ombudsman, Mr. Endrit Shabani, gave an interview on Top Channel television with journalist Anila Hoxha. The conversation focused on the complaints of Albanians at the European Court of Human Rights as well as the complaints of citizens in Albania to our institution.

Mr. Shabani responded to the journalist's interest on the issue of pre-trial detention in Albania as well as on the findings of the Ombudsman on the development of the protests of recent months.

Full interview:

Anila Hoxha: Mr. Shabani, during the meeting you had at the Strasbourg Court, you raised concerns about the excessive length of processes in Albania and about a bill of nearly 40 million euros for processes over 10 years. You claim to be an active Ombudsman and not just an observer, how can this work? And what do Albanian citizens complain about to the Ombudsman?

Endrit Shabani Ombudsman: The property issue is the first thing they complain about. Another problematic issue is the delays in trials. We are trying to establish cooperation with the ILD, KLP and KLGJ so that those judges who, beyond objective reasons, abuse their power by not disclosing the decisions, are not promoted so that Albanians can enjoy the right that the constitution gives them. Second, they complain about pensions and economic assistance, the housing scheme and the rental bonus. One of the main complaints that citizens have is the right to property and it is unfortunate that even after 36 years they do not enjoy the right to property.

In some cases they go to Strasbourg to find the right to property, so the role of the Ombudsman should be to protect citizens.

In some cases, these Strasbourg decisions that are in the advantage of citizens are not implemented and therefore we can play a role to monitor the implementation of Strasbourg decisions and the second to report

Anila Hoxha: Since we are on pre-trial detention, the Ombudsman also monitors the penitentiary institution, what is the ratio between pre-trial detainees and prisoners?

Endrit Shabani Ombudsman: One of the concerns that the EC raised both when we were visiting Strasbourg and also the missions that have come to Albania, is that we have a very high ratio of pre-trial detainees to prisoners.

Which means that out of 100 people in prison, 60 of them remain there without a final decision, which means they may be guilty, but they may also be innocent, but we do not know this. This shows that we are not dealing with one or two but with a system error.

Attention always goes to SPAK, to that 5 percent that addresses organized crime and high-level politicians. But we forget that the district and lower prosecutors' offices that deal with the daily lives of citizens are sending people to prison who may be innocent tomorrow. This has a social, economic cost and a continuation of the repressive mentality that we have suffered in Albania. This is the main battle for human rights. If a citizen goes to prison, he should go because there is a final decision and it is not because a prosecutor finds it easier to take him to prison and then investigate.

Anila Hoxha: The People's Advocate has published the preliminary report on the latest protest, which raises concerns about the protocols followed. What is it specifically about?

Endrit Shabani People's Advocate: We try to guarantee the right to protest in Albania and we certainly do not encourage violent protests that neither do honor to society nor help public order.

But our focus is the work of the police and at this point we have had continuous communication with the police and then we publish the reports. One of the problems is the lack of transparency regarding the protocol for the use of tear gas or pressurized water. We need to know in order to judge who makes the decision to use these means, the second is proportionality and the third is necessity. To guarantee all three of these conditions, we need to see the protocol. To this day, we do not have the information, we have made several attempts to obtain it from the state police and we have not received it yet.

Anila Hoxha: Why has the State Police not responded?

Endrit Shabani Ombudsman: I think it may have been a failure of the police, I hope that the next leader will make it a priority. Here we are talking about the rule of law, human rights, even when a citizen breaks the law, he should be treated with dignity, and police violence should be used when necessary, when it is proportional, and when the danger is real.