A 37-year-old woman was murdered by her partner on Saturday (30 July) in their home, five days after filing a restraining order against him.
Jetlira Elezi lived with her daughter from a previous marriage and shared an apartment with her killer, Ramis Mici, in the central city of Elbasan.
Mici stabbed Elezi in the early hours of Saturday, after she had filed a restraining order against him. According to witness statements from their neighbors, Mici had been accompanied to the local police station after his partner’s complaint, before being released shortly after.
Despite the restraining order, which mandates that Mici keep his distance from Elezi, the couple slept in the same apartment but in different rooms.
Mici was arrested on Sunday following a short-lived manhunt.
Jetlira Elezi is the fifth femicide this year, and the second to have filed a restraining order against a violent partner before her murder.
A recent investigation by BIRN into restraining orders found out that the vast majority are suspended or overruled because the victims fail to appear in court or withdraw them.
Even when restraining orders are approved, if the perpetrators are released, there is nothing to stop them from finding their partners and re-initiating the cycle of violence, as happened in Elezi’s case.
Furthermore, lack of housing options means that victims are often forced to remain close to their abusers. A report published by the organization Movement for Housing (“Lëvizja për Strehim”) shows that the Municipality of Tirana is failing to provide long-term housing to women granted restraining orders.
The report shows a clear mismatch between the growing number of applications for restraining orders, and applications for housing assistance. According to the Movement for Housing, this discrepancy is due both to a lack of information, and the complex procedures required to apply for relief. Applicants must file dozens of documents to prove their financial and social situation, in addition to finding a cooperative landlord willing to sign a government-backed rental agreement.
Meanwhile, the UN Women in Albania found that more than one in three Albanian women say they feel unsafe at home because of the presence of physical violence and almost 80% think the risk of domestic violence has increased since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
