An Albanian woman and her family have been granted international protection in Ireland on the basis of crimes committed against her by a person she alleges is protected by the ruling Socialist Party in Albania.
The woman won a High Court challenge against an initial refusal to grant protection on the basis she was being stalked by a politically connected and protected person in Albania. She stated that a one-time co-worker had begun stalking her at work- leaving messages on her desk and making anonymous telephone calls to her phone. Matters then escalated and her husband’s car was vandalised and he was shot at whilst out driving. In the end, the situation became so bad, the woman quit her job and moved to Tirana.
After a short time, the woman stated she found a cat’s head in a box left on her doorstep, believed to have been left behind by the stalker. This individual enjoys political influence and protection in the country, she told the court. After making a police report in Albania and nothing being done, the family took the decision to flee the country and are now residing in Ireland.
The woman told the court: “The police in Albania are quite corrupt…[Mr X] has connects with the police and people in government. He got the job because of political connections. Even if he goes to prison, he will come out in 2 or 3 months.”
“The people who have a relationship with politicians and money, only they win cases,” she told the court.
When pressed on who these political connections were, she said “the Socialist Party. The reason they favour him is because they help them through the elections to get more votes.”
When questioned about why she had not pursued the matter with Albanian police, she said “I cannot because I know that he had political protection. In Albania, they buy votes and are politically protected and they are untouchables.”
The presiding judge said that her stalker “remained a credible threat” and there were substantial grounds for believing that if she returned to Albania, the family would be at risk of serious harm. It was also observed that she was unlikely to receive state protection as “the police did not always enforce the law equitably. Personal associations, political, or criminal connections…often influenced law enforcement.”
On these grounds, he granted the woman, her husband, and her children international protection in the country.
